Why Every Coffee Lover Needs to Visit This Specific Safari Lodge in Tanzania

“Hello, good morning,” I hear in quiet, gentle song. “Hello,” I hear again, this time with the “O” lingering at the end, rising to a tenor as my eyes flutter open, momentarily forgetting where I am. 

“Good morning,” I manage to get out once I have my wits about me, scrambling in the darkness to free myself from the netting around my bed inside the canvas tent I called home that night. I know what’s waiting on the other side: one of the best cups of coffee I’ve had anywhere on Earth, delivered miles from humanity, tucked somewhere deep in the grasses of the Serengeti. 

In September, I traveled to Tanzania with Legendary Expeditions, an outfitter built around the “True.Wild.Free” philosophy. In its main lodge and tented camps, like Nyasi, where I found myself on this particular morning, nothing is hurried. Heart, soul, and history are infused into everything they do, including that morning cup, delivered in a Stanley French press right to my tent, made with beans grown on their Legendary Lodge property for more than a century. 

At its main lodge in Arusha, just outside the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Legendary has been tending to the thousands of coffee plants it inherited when it took over the property in 2003. 

However, it doesn’t have to look over all those evergreen shrubs alone, as it partners with the nearby Burka Coffee Estate, one of the largest and oldest coffee farms in the nation, which specializes in shade-grown Colombian Mild Arabica beans. 

“I fell in love in cups,” says Michael Nsaro, the estate’s quality control coordinator, as we toured the estate, sipping on beans he had hand-grown, plucked, and roasted for both this occasion and for all those cups served at the main lodge and across Legendary’s tented camps. Nsaro, a young 20-something, has an easy confidence about him and has proven his skills well with his 2024 National Cupping Championship win. Still, he shared, “In coffee, there is no expert. You’re never going to be an expert on something in nature.” 

If there was ever a person to savor a cup with, though, it’s him. And that’s exactly what guests at Legendary have the chance to do.

With a stay at Legendary Lodge, guests have access to tours at Burka with Nsaro, who will happily walk you through the coffee fields, which, if you time it just right, fill the air with a scent similar to jasmine, with its bursting-to-life white flowers, and burgundy-hued beans. Next, he’ll show you how those beans are harvested and dried under the Tanzanian sun, before roasting on-site. We plucked a few for the brand’s espresso, which came out almost the color of dark chocolate and pulled into a shot filled with those jasmine and floral undertones. These beans are sent off to various coffee shops around Tanzania, in each of the camps and the main lodge, and one more surprising spot: Starbucks cafes all over the world. Still, it’s absolutely freshest here. 

Of course, this is just the beginning of a stay with Legendary. You are, after all, on safari, so naturally they’ll take you out into the Tanzanian wilderness to spot a herd of elephants, a dazzle of zebras, a troop of monkeys, or even to spot Omo, one of the only white giraffes in the world, at its partner camp, Chem Chem. But every morning, or afternoon, or frankly whenever you wish, they’ll brew you that special cup. And you can sip it as slowly as you wish. Or at least until you have to go back to your day-to-day life. Just make sure to tuck a few bags of beans in your carry-on to bring home as a reminder to slow down once in a while, too.