Kenya Kiaragana AA

KENYA SEASON IS UPON US. We’ve got quite a few Kenyan coffees lined up for y’all, starting with this beauty right here. She’s a classic this one. 

With nearly 700,000 coffee producers, roughly 70% of which are smallholder producers, Kenya shines as a unique coffee-producing country in East Africa. Within the Central Province in Mukure location of Ndia Division near Kerugoya town of Kirinyaga County, the Kiaragana Factory was opened in 1979 to collect cherries from farmers in the villages of Kiaragana, Nguguini, Karuku and Gathuthi. 

The soil here is rich and red, indicating plenty of volcanic materials ideal for coffee production. The temperature and rainfall are perfect to grow excellent quality coffee. During the harvest, after producers carefully handpick and deliver the ripe cherries to the Factory, they are sorted and sent to be processed. A disc pulper with three sets of discs is used to remove the external fruit from the seed. The coffee is then placed in tiled tanks to ferment overnight, breaking down the remaining sticky mucilage. The following morning, the coffee is cleaned, soaked, and washed one final time before being dispersed on raised beds to dry in the open sun. Drying typically takes 7 – 15 days to attain the ideal moisture content. 

Varietal Information 

Ruiru 11 – Developed by the Coffee Research Institute in the 1960s after the outbreak of Coffee Leaf Rust and Coffee Berry Disease. These trees were not only disease-tolerant, but also high-yielding, producing cherries after just 1.5 years. 

SL 28 – Scott Agricultural Laboratories created this varietal in 1931 to combat the stresses caused by drought in Kenya incurred by coffee producers. With deep roots, this varietal was better able to locate moisture in the water table and more resistant to periods of low precipitation. 

SL 34 – Scott Agricultural Laboratories developed this varietal from the French Bourbon in the late 1930s in Kenya. Also, a drought tolerant varietal, the SL 34 additionally produced larger cherries with a shorter growing period. 

Batian – Developed by the Coffee Research Institute in Kenya, this varietal was named after one of the highest peaks on Mt. Kenya. This is a newer varietal, only created in 2010, and exhibits resistance to Coffee Berry Disease and Leaf Rust whilst maintaining exceptional quality and yield. 

NOW FOR THE SENSORY EXPERIENCE. Very classic Kenyan coffee, she greets us with almost comforting familiarity. We get the vibrant burst of mixed berry in the form of a pleasant phosphoric acidity, coupled with the sweetness of fresh orange. A very juicy coffee, she tapers off to the refined complexity in the finish, likened to that of red currants. ENJOY HER EVERYONE!