Kenya - Thiririka AA

Flavour notes: Blackberries, Stone fruit, Citrus

Producers: 1500 member farmers at the Thiririka factory

Origin: Kiambu County – Kenya

Altitude: 1600–1800 masl

Cultivars: SL28, SL34, Batian, Ruiru 11

Process: Washed

This lot comes from the Thiririka Farmers Cooperative Society, and it consists of coffees from hundreds of smallholders from the area surrounding the washing station. The team at the factory sort the cherries by hand before they go into production. After pulping the coffee is generally processed with dry fermentation for 12-14 hours before being washed and graded in channels.

Then, the coffee is dried on raised beds for between 10-15 days. 
More than half of all coffee produced in Kenya is grown by smallholder farmers, each with 1-2 hectares of land. Many farmers grow different crops and maybe have as few as 100 coffee trees. The farmers are organised in Cooperative Societies that act as umbrella organisations for the Factories (wet mills), where the smallholders deliver their coffee cherries for processing. Most farmers are surrounded by several wet mills and they are free to choose where they want to deliver their cherries.

Due to the traditional auction system in Kenya, quality is rewarded with higher prices. The better the factories will then attract more farmers by producing coffees that earn the highest prices, which they return to the farmers in the form of a second payment. After the cost of marketing and preparation is deducted, this can something be up to 90% of the sales price.

This is the first Kenyan coffee of the year and what an amazing lot it is. It showcases the very best from Kenya with notes of blackberries, stone fruit, currants and citrus. A real juice bomb!