Kenya Nyeri Gichathaini Peaberry

This coffee is from the Gichathaini wet mill in Nyeri. It's one of three washing stations under the Gikanga Farmer's Cooperative Society umbrella, the other two being Kangocho and Ndaroini (the name "Gikanda" is actually made up of the first letters of the three factory names: GIchathaini + KAngocho + NDAroini). They have been an outstanding cooperative for years, and we used to see their coffee with some regularity, but the group we work with in Nyeri hasn't had any offers to show us for a few years. We actually had the opportunity to visit a few years back and hope to again soon. Like most of the region, the farmer members of Gichathaini work very small plots of land. Many have less than one hectare of land, and the preferred cultivars are SL-28, and SL-34 bourbon selections, known for good cup quality, especially when growing conditions are favorable. This region has very good altitude, starting at 1900 meters above sea level, and topping out around 2000 meters. This is the Peaberry outturn, a natural occurance that affects about 5% of cherries, where only one of two coffee embryos germinates, causing it to take on a round shape like the cherry itself. It's important to point out that coffee comes in all different shapes and sizes, and that the different grades like Peaberry, AA, and AB are all separated from a single lot of coffee. There can be flavor differences from one grade to the next (especially when you go into the lower grades), but not always for the top quality grades. We found this Peaberry to be on par with the AA lot we recently sold out of, albeit with a little more fruit in the cup.