Meet the new single-origin coffees bringing Nigeria’s coffee story back into the cup.
Nigeria’s coffee story is not beginning again. It is being rediscovered.
Across the highlands of Plateau State, Arabica has been grown for generations. Some of these origins once carried a reputation across West Africa, while others have remained largely unknown beyond the communities that cultivated them.
Today, a new generation of Nigerian coffee is beginning to tell those stories again.
At Mai Shayi Coffee, our latest releases are part of that resurgence.
These coffees are not simply new products on a shelf. They are expressions of specific places, farming communities, varieties, processes and histories — and each one gives us another way to show what Nigerian Arabica can become.
Mountain Arabica — Remembering Where It Began
Our Mountain Arabica comes from Vom & Kuru in the Plateau of Central Nigeria, an origin deeply connected to the history of Arabica cultivation in the country.
Its story reaches back to the early 1900s, when Arabica seed was brought across the Sahara into the Berom highlands. Decades later, the variety had adapted to the region’s volcanic soils and established Plateau State as an important Arabica origin.
But the story nearly disappeared.
As Nigeria’s economy changed and investment in coffee declined, old plantations were neglected and the industry contracted. The coffee survived largely because generations of farmers continued tending it.
In 2021, Mai Shayi Coffee returned to this heritage, using DNA fingerprinting to confirm the Mountain Blue lineage on our Farin Lamba micro lot.
Today, Mountain Arabica is more than a coffee we roast. It is a piece of Nigerian coffee history brought back into the cup.
Amina — A New Generation of Nigerian Coffee
If Mountain Arabica looks back to where Nigerian Arabica came from, Amina looks at where it can go next.
Named after Queen Amina of Zazzau, Amina comes from our Shen Farm, where our own coffee production is helping build the next chapter of Nigerian specialty coffee.
It is the first lot our farm sends to the roaster after each harvest.
The coffee is a natural-process Arabica grown at 1,287.92 MASL, with a cup profile of berries and blood orange developing into tea-like florals, maracuyá and papaya, with a long finish of chocolate, brown sugar, grape and spice.
But the significance of Amina goes beyond what we taste. It represents the shift from simply sourcing Nigerian coffee to developing Nigerian coffee at origin.
We are not only waiting for exceptional coffee to appear. We are investing in the farms, people, systems and knowledge required to grow it.
House of Mai Shayi — When the Work Behind the Cup Becomes the Story
Then there is House of Mai Shayi.
Our House Reserve is our fullest expression of the season — a coffee selected through a demanding process of sourcing, processing, cupping and roasting.
Its story is also a reminder that exceptional coffee is never the work of one person.
One of the farmers behind this release is a cooperative farmer who, after receiving agronomy support from Mai Shayi, survived a violent attack on her community. She returned to harvest later in the season and brought her coffee back with her.
That coffee is in this bag.
For us, that matters. Because rarity is not only about flavour. It is about the work behind the cup.
The Resurgence Is in the Details
Together, these releases show what the resurgence of Nigerian Arabica can look like.
It looks like recovering forgotten histories. It looks like investing in farms and farmers. It looks like preserving genetic material and improving planting systems. It looks like processing with greater precision. It looks like cupping, measuring and validating quality.
And ultimately, it looks like giving Nigerian coffee a place in the world where people can experience it — not as an idea of what Nigerian coffee could be, but as exceptional coffee that exists now.
Three coffees. Different origins. Different stories. One resurgence.
And this is only the beginning.