Visiting a coffee farm is an amazing sensorial experience. Around harvest time, you get to taste the coffee cherries straight off the tree. They can be rich, sweet and tropical. You hear the pickers singing traditional songs as they work. But the irst thing that hits you is the pungent, jammy smell: cherries are left to dry and ferment on every available inch of patio and rooftop, even on cars.
PHOTOGRAPHS: JAMES MUNSON, EXOPIXEL/SHUTTERSTOCK
In spring, the usually green landscape turns into a sea of white coffee blossom. The lowers waft this incredible jasmine-like fragrance. There’s nothing else like it.
South and Central American coffees tend to have chocolatey, nutty lavour profiles, while African coffees are more loral and citric. It all depends on the soil. Wherever it’s grown, coffee likes to be at altitude. Plants are cultivated on steep hillsides, and the pickers are as skilful as mountain goats.
Going to Ethiopia was a pilgrimage for me. For the Tate, I mostly source from Latin America, as it is easier to work direct with producers. In Africa, you usually go through auction houses. But Ethiopia is where coffee originated. You have these very long-lived plants there, and ceremonies where they roast beans and brew coffee in front of you as a welcoming gesture.