Kenya

Kenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch. The best Kenya coffees are not sold simply as generic AA or AB. They are specific auction lots sold to the highest bidder, and heated competition drives the prices sky high. Their research and development is unparalleled. Their quality control is meticulous, and many thousands of small farmers are highly educated in their agricultural practice --and rewarded -- for top level coffee.

In general, this is a bright coffee that lights up the palate from front to back. It is not for people who do not like acidity in coffee (acidity being the prized bright notes in the cup due to an interrelated set of chlorogenic acids). A great Kenya is complex, and has interesting fruit (berry, citrus) flavors, sometimes alternating with spice. Some are clean and bright, others have cherished winey flavors.

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We currently offer these unroasted coffees:

Kenya Kiawamururu AB
Kenya Nyeri Gaturiri AB
Kenya Nyeri Kagumo-ini AB
Kenya Kiawamururu AB
$7.00
$13.30
$30.45
$58.10
$110.80
Kiawamururu: Coffee drying beds, a patch of forest, and Mt Kenya obscured in the mid-day haze.
Arrival dateNovember 2012 Arrival
Appearance.4 d/300gr, 15-16 screen
GradeAB
ProcessingWet Process Kenya Type
RegionMukurwe-ini, Nyeri District
Varietal(s)SL-28
Intensity/Prime attributeBold Intensity / Jammy fruit notes, intense brightness and sweetness
RoastCity+ to Full City roast will develop the sugars in the coffee, and maintain the bright fruited accent flavors

Kiawamururu has always been a fun name to pronounce, a little easier than it look in writing. Kiawamururu is a cooperative coffee "factory," which is what they call a wet mill where coop farmers bring their coffee cherry fruit for processing in Kenya. It is near Mukurwe-ini town in Nyeri, Kenya. The coop is part of the Rumukia FCS (farmers cooperative society), and along with others from this same parent cooperative, is a coffee we have offered multiple times in our 15 year history at Sweet Maria's. This year there was one particularily special out-turn of Kiawamururu coffee from the dry mill, and we purchased all the screen separations from it, the largest AA, the middle sized AB, and the Peaberry. An out-turn is the name for the graded, separated lots that come from one raw, unmilled lot of parchment that arrives at the mill. So although we will be offering 3 different types of Kiawamururu coffee, they all originated with the same coffee! There are differences in each reflected in the cup notes and point scores. This review is for the AB screen size, which is prepared to the same quality level as AA and PB, just 15-17 screen sized coffee grains. In some ways I find the AB slightly more intense in terms of fruit notes

The fragrance from the dry grounds has a strong sweetness as well as more fruited character than the AA, I noted. There is blackberry, raw cane sugar (just a hint of molasses), and a suggestion of root beer. The wet aromatics have complex fruited tones, blackberry, plum preserves, and concord grape notes. The cup is intense, bright, and takes the tongue for a turn. The brightness has a combined red and black currant acidity to it, with ripe fruit notes headed toward a wine-like aspect. The sweetness from the AB is more rounded and rustic than it's sister lot, the AA grade. But it gives a supremely juicy character to the coffee that reinforces the berry flavors, and pairs well with the mouthfeel. This is textbook "jammy" coffee. As it cools, plum and flame grape notes emerge. The sweetness is like muscavado sugar, raw, unprocessed, with vanilla and caramel hints. It's a fantastic cup.

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Kenya Nyeri Gaturiri AB
$7.60
$14.44
$33.06
$63.08
$120.04
Ripe coffee cherry near Gaturiri Factory
Arrival dateNovember 2012 Arrival
Appearance.2 d/300gr, 15-16 screen
GradeAB
ProcessingWet Process Kenya Type
RegionNyeri District, Karatina Division
Varietal(s)SL-28
Intensity/Prime attributeBold Intensity / Dark fruit notes, raisin and plum pudding, a more moderate acidity than other Kenyas
RoastCity+ to Full City+ is ideal for Gaturiri AB

Gaturiri is a "coffee factory", a cooperative wet-processing mill, near the town of Karatina in the heart of Nyeri. We have offered it may times in past years, and earlier arrivals from this current crop too. This arrived Gaturri AB was from our final container leaving from Kenya, and I was happily surprised by the cup quality. We had an incredible lot of Gatomboya last year, another "factory" that is part of the same cooperative group as Gaturiri, Barichu Farmers Cooperative Society. So we have been buying from the same family of coffees lately. This is a fairly intense cup, especially in the lighter roasts. If you don't love boldly bright and acidic coffees, you might want to be discrete with the quantity you buy; try a little and see how it goes. With this lot, we didn't want to risk entering the Kenya auction for a great coffee like this, so it was bought direct, outside the auction format. It means we had to pay a premium to ensure the final cost was at or above what the auction price might be.

This is a very sweet cup, apparent from the dry fragrance of caramelized cane sugar sweetness, with dark berry and plum-like fruit suggestions. The wet aromatics and break have vibrant sweetness as well, with dark syrupy notes, somewhat maple-like, grape hard candies, and sweet spice. It's a classic scent that is typical for Gaturiri as we have found it through the years; a saturated ripe fruit sweetness pervades the aromatics and cup flavors. The cup distinguishes itself from other Kenyas with it's balance, and well-integrated and moderate acidity: It's not too tart. It has raisin-like dried fruit character, dark plum preserves and sweet spice notes of cinnamon and a touch of mace. As it cools the cup has a plum pudding personality, creamy, thick and sweet.

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Kenya Nyeri Kagumo-ini AB
$7.40
$14.06
$32.19
$61.42
$116.96
Kenya - Patrick Kilomo, manager of Kagumo-ini Factory.
Arrival dateOctober 2012 Arrival
Appearance.2 d/300gr, 15-16 Screen
GradeAB Main Crop Lot
ProcessingWet Process Kenya Type
RegionNyeri District, Mathira Division
Varietal(s)SL-28, SL-34
Intensity/Prime attributeMedium Intensity / Sweet, clean layers of fruit in the cup, more moderate acidity than other Kenyas
RoastCity+ roast to Full City is ideal for Kagumo-ini AB

We're pleased to offer another beautiful lot from the Mugaga Farmer's Cooperative Society - this AB lot from Kagumo-ini. The quality of coffee coming out of this mill is consistently high, and a good reason we continue to offer lots from here year after year. We've already listed an amazing peaberry lot from the Kagumo-ini "factory" and this particular AB version carries the same pedigree as its "PB" couterpart. The mill is near Karatina town in Mathira, Nyeri with average farms in the area at 1600 meter altitude. It's a typical cooperative in many ways, but there's nothing typical about the quality of the coffee produced here. For instance, farmers sort their coffee themselves prior to submitting for processing, making certain as much defective cherry is removed as possible. It's small things like this make a huge difference in the resulting coffee. This is our second shipment of Kagumo-ini for the year, but has been very consistent with the high quality of the first lot we sold, as is a fresher late 2012 arrival.

The dry fragrance of Kagumo-ini is laced with caramel and vanilla sweetness. Full City roasts have sweet spices, hints cardamom and all-spice. There is also a floral peach scent in the dry aroma that comes through clearly when hot water is added. Breaking the wet grounds of a City+ roast has a malic brightness, with hints of citrus, ripe apricot, and clover honey, while darker roasts have more of a caramel apple appeal. The cup is sweet and juicy. City+ roasts bring out the fruited complexity that this coffee is capable of producing. Red apple, ripe pink grapefruit, green grape, and candied orange peel, names only a few of the fruit notes we found. Going darker into the roast sees a caramelized sugar note along with golden raisin. This coffee fades to a slightly rindy finish as it cools, which is pleasantly bittering. This is a coffee that really opens up as it cools, and the longer you hold it on your palate, the more you get out of it. Lighter roasts start to display tropical fruit flavors of guava as the cup cools Out of all our Kenya coffees, this is definitely the one with the best SO espresso potential due to the culmination of dark sugar sweetness, moderate brightness, and sweet fruit notes.

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