Kiota Coffee is born from a rich family heritage, rooted in the northern highlands of Tanzania, where a Maasai farmer tended to his coffee and sunflower fields with passion. For him, farming was a way of life, a bond with the land that carried the wisdom of generations.
His daughter followed in his footsteps, cultivating coffee with the same care and passion. In Arusha, she built a café that became a beloved space for the community, a place where locals gathered to share stories over the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee.
Kiota Coffee founder Iman Muse continues her grandfather and mothers legacy, honoring the craftsmanship of the past while embracing the art of curation and refinement. Every bean is selected from single estate family farms with intention, reflecting a storied heritage. It is coffee at its most meaningful, a bridge between tradition and the future, transmission between culture and taste.
More than a brand, Kiota is a story passed down through generations.
Our Story
"Kiota" means "nest" in Swahili, symbolizing the safe, nurturing environment we provide for our farmers, our customers, and our vision. It's in this nest where we cultivate not just the best coffee, but an ethos that values quality, sustainability, and empowerment.
Our core mission at Kiota is to share the heritage of the coffee we love. We aim to do this by sourcing our coffee in this lens while in direct relationship with producers in the Kilimanjaro region.
Coffee boasts over 800 flavor profiles, far surpassing wine’s 50 to 100, making it the more complex and sophisticated choice. It's the new wine - rich, nuanced, and full of depth.
When we aren’t suppling roasters with our carefully hand sorted green coffee beans, our roast style is light and bright, aiming to highlight a profile and approach that we feel best represents the coffees and our informed style of roasting.
