What Wows Us About This Coffee
This beautiful Kenyan coffee is loaded with powerful flavors without much of the savoriness that sometimes accompanies coffees like this. It’s bold, sweet and complex with a long finish.
Farm, Lot and Process Details
The process begins with picking only red, ripe cherries, which are cleaned and floated. The coffee is then pulped and fermented for 8-10 hours before being washed and soaked under fresh water for an extended 48 hours, with the water being changed every 8 hours. This intensive soaking stage is key to its clean profile. The parchment is then "skin dried" in thin layers under shade for 3 days, allowing for a gentle start to the drying process, which takes a total of 12-17 days to complete.
Producer and Region Details
In 2015, Stephen Nendela converted his family's 6-acre sugar cane farm to coffee and found success with direct-export microlots. He then purchased this 17-acre farm at 1900 MASL in the Cherengany Hills, a cold microclimate in Kenya's Western Rift Valley. Stephen and his wife Lilian named the farm 'Nawiri' (prosperity), but it's widely known as 'Muinami', Stephen's last name, which means "those who work" in Kikuyu. This name is fitting, as Stephen represents a new wave of Kenyan producers. Recent reforms in Kenya have opened up direct export channels, liberating farmers from a decades-old system and allowing them to connect directly with roasters. Stephen is at the forefront of this movement, cupping his own coffee, experimenting with fermentation, and paying meticulous attention to detail where others previously could not.
