Kenya Kirinyaga Kiri AB

Kiri brews archetypal Kenya flavors when roasted to City/City+, brightly sweet with an assemblage of citrus notes and natural sweetness. But it also functions well as a medium-roast, too. The fragrance of our light roast had strong impressions of brown sugar and vanilla when ground, with a bit of malty-sweet accents, and lemon peel citric quality. The rindy aspects really show up in the wet aroma, and to me, had a candied sweetness that brought to mind candied citrus peels. At City roast level, the coffee has bracing acidity that illuminates the underlying sweetness of raw sugars like demerara, and piloncillo types. Juicy highlights are focused, and come off with a mixed citrus quality that ranges from lemonade and orange, to more bittering kumquat and grapefruit. The cup is lively to the finish, bright and tangy, with zesty top notes as it cools. Roasting closer to Full City will draw out darker toned fruits, like black currants, and a squeeze of blood orange, with soft roast bittering in the background.