Tasting Notes: Blackberry, Sugarcane Juice, Hard Candy, Makrut Lime
Process: Washed
Region: Kirinyaga
Elevation: 1740 MASL
Variety: SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, Batian
The Kainamui factory serves about 1,800 smallholder coffee farmers who are members of the New Ngariama Farmers Cooperative Society, about 600 of whom are women. The smallholders own an average of 200 trees on less than half a hectare of land. Farmers in the area grow gravellea, macadamia nuts, eucalyptus, tea, corn, and bananas in addition to coffee. The factory receives field visits from agricultural ministers and agro-companies who offer training programs. The F.C.S. also provides prefinancing for farmers to allow them to pay school fees, production costs, and in case of emergencies.
Microlots from Kenya are traceable to either the factory level or individual farm level (when possible), and are selected basis cup score. Because the majority of coffee farmers in Kenya own between 1/8–1/4 a hectare of land, most deliver coffee in cherry form to a local factory for sorting and processing; at the factory, the deliveries are blended and processed into day lots comprising the day' s deliveries. Our green buyer for Kenya typically takes up residency in Kenya during the harvest due to the sheer number of samples to be cupped and selects the best of these lots to purchase as microlots (fewer than 100 bags).
Kirinyaga, in Central Kenya, is home to Mt. Kenya. It is forested with a wealth of exotic wildlife receiving 50 inches of rain per year. Many rivers run through the region and the soil is rich and volcanic, providing smallholders and cooperatives with the resources to grow and process some of Kenya's most fruit-forward coffees.
