Kenya Kangocho AB

Welcoming the year of the Horse, we present to you a new coffee from the Kangocho Factory (wet mill) from the Nyeri District in Central Kenya. The Nyeri region is made up of mainly smallholder farms, each with some 100 trees. They are organized in Cooperative Societies that act as umbrella organizations for the Factories (wet mills), where the smallholders deliver their coffee cherries for processing. There is a lot of competition in Nyeri. Many of the farmers are surrounded by several wet mills. They are free to choose where they want to deliver their cherries as members. Due to the traditional auction system in Kenya, quality is rewarded with higher prices. The better factories will then attract more farmers by producing coffee getting the highest prices, as well as giving high payback rate to the farmers.

The Kangocho Factory is part of the Gikanda Cooperative Society, which is made up from the Gichatha-ini, Kangocho, and Ndaro-ini Cooperatives. The name takes the first few letters of each factory/wet mill to arrive at GiKaNda. For years, it has been one of the most respected producers in Nyeri. They have been very consistent on quality over the years and have fetched high prices in the market. The amount given back to the farmers has been above 88%. Over the years, they have set up good systems for traceability and quality control.

In the cup, look for magnolia-like floral aroma. We get loads of black grapes, oranges and apricots with a distinct citrus acidity. This is a juicy cup with a well-structured body and an outstandingly clean finish.

We enjoyed this coffee a lot and hopefully you will too!

• Cooperative: Gikanda Cooperative Society
• Wet mill: Kangocho Factory Region: Nyeri
• Altitude: 1800 – 1900m asl
• Producers: Hundreds of smallholders in the surrounding areas deliver cherries to the wet mill.
• Varietals: Mainly SL 28 and SL 34.
• Grade: AB refers to the bean size. AB in Kenya is screen size 15/16.
• Process: All coffees are pulped, dry fermented, washed, soaked and sundried. Cherries are hand-sorted for unripe and overripe by the farmers before they go in to production. The cherries are then put through a pulping machine,which removes the skin and pulp. The coffees are graded by density in to 3 grades by the pulper. Grade 1 and 2 goes separately to fermentation. Grade 3 is considered low grade. The coffee is then fermented for 24-36 hours under close shade. After fermentation the coffees are washed and again graded by density in washing channels and are then soaked under clean water for 16-18 hours. After soaking, the coffee is sun-dried up to 21 days on African drying beds. Coffees are covered in plastic during midday and at night.