Kenya Embu Kathakwa Peaberry

The Kathakwa Factory is located right on the border between Embu and Kirinyaga districts, serving farmers on both sides of that line. "Factories" are washing stations where coffee cherry is processed down to the green coffee seed. In most cases, this involves depulping the fruit, followed by a fermentation stage that washes away any remaining fruit mucilage, and then drying the coffee on raised beds. At Kathakwa, the fruit is removed using a disc-type depulper, common to Kenya. The fermentation stage typically consists of 24 hours wet fermentation, followed by a 12 hour soak. They call this "double fermentation", though there is no meaningful fermentation during the second soak, and mainly employed to wash away and sticky fruit mucilate that remains stuck to the seeds. The coffee is then dried on raised beds for anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks depending on weather. The washing station sits on the south side of Mount Kenya and most of the coffee delivered to Kathakwa is grown between 1500 and 1700 meters above sea level.