KENYA sour cherry ∙ blackcurrant ∙ citruses
This Kenyan produced by the Kainamui washing station
is full of dried sour cherries in taste and aroma.
Kainamui is responsible for processing the cherries of more than 1800 farmers during the harvest.
K
enya is the country of intensive, well-balanced coffees with hints of berries. Sixty five thousand tons of coffee is grown in Kenya every year and more than half of this yield is supplied by about seven hundred thousand small farmers. The unique flavour of Kenyan coffees can be attributed to two things: the wet process used throughout the country and two main coffee varieties grown on the farms: the SL34 and the SL28 that was first bred by Scot Laboratories. While SL34 is a highly drought resistant type and has great yields, it’s the SL28 that adds the rich, unique flavour to the Kenyan coffees. Kainamui processing station is in the region of Kirinyaga, more specifically near Ngariama, which is in the county of Gichugu. This region is known for coffees with hints of sweet tomato jam. Besides being a washing station where the 1800 local farmers can sell their coffee, Kainamui performs valuable social functions as well, such as agronomy training for its members. The coffee is grown at a high altitude in rich, red volcanic soil. The farms are quite small,
each having an average of 200 trees. The coffee is picked by hand, the cherries are sorted according to density at the washing station. The floaters (also called mbunis), which spoil the taste of the coffee after roasting, are removed. Fermentation has two stages. This first stage will last for about 24 hours, after which the beans are washed and are further fermented for another 12-24 hours. The beans are later kept in clean water for an additional 24 hours, while the amino acids and proteins can develop in the beans.
Our coffees taste the best when extracted with water of the proper hardness* range. In order to highlight the best flavour of our roasts we recommend having 5 to 10 days of resting period after roasting, but consume within two weeks of opening. Enjoy!
This washing and the following drying process contribute to typical Kenyan flavours we love. The drying itself is a really slow process. In fact, the slogan is: the slower, the better. Normally, it lasts for 5-11 days, but depending on the weather, it can even take 20 days. Following the wet-processing, the beans are transferred from Kainamui to the dry mill, where are packed into bags, put into containers and loaded onto ships and sent to us for roasting. * Total hardness: 50 –175 ppm CaCO3 (2.9–9.8 °d), ppm CaCO3 (2.2–4.2 °d), pH: 6.5-8.0.
alkalinity/buffer: 40 –75 (The SCAE Water Chart)
photo by the Nordic Approach
KAINAMUI