In March 2009, I took a detour to Nairobi, Kenya for cupping and some farm visits in Thika and Nyeri areas. I was already headed to Ethiopia for late February, but had heard that the cop was large and of excellent quality in Kenya, and was told "come right away." Okay, I did, and the resutls were some excellent rounds of cupping and many new contacts. I visited many coffee factories (wet mills) where we have already bought: Karagoto, Ndaroini, Kiawamururu, Tegu, Kangocho and more. I also learned more about the coffee "societies", what they call a cooperative. Each cooperative is organized into districts, each with their own "factory". Coops can take a maximum of 20% of the proceeds a lot makes in the Kenya auction, or from a direct "Second Harvest" purchase that circumvents the auction. I especially enjoyed the time I had cupping at the mill in Nyeri, and visiting the coffee shambas, the small farms of coop members. The amount of cupping they do here is staggering. Nothing compares. An auction can have 650 lots a week. Each are cupped twice, plus they cup all the Tanzania coffes here, another 600, twice, plus re-cups of anything they are interested in bidding on. Extra focus is put on coffees from the related company, Central Kenya Coffee Mill, so those get re-cupped more. The average number of weekly samples cupped at C. Dorman during the auction season is 3,000! There is a lot of work behind Kenya coffee for sure. And we are hoping to take it to a new level this next year, with many of our lots coming in vacuum pack to ensure highest quality with no flavor loss in transit. Here are the pictures from the trip ...

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9