Kenya Mutheka Kiandu Espresso

Smallholders in Nyeri, Kenya, deliver the cherries for this specialty coffee to a factory near the town of Tetu, between the Aberdare Ranges and Mount Kenya, at around 1,600 to 1,700 metres. Nyeri and neighbouring Kirinyaga are known for intense, complex and flavour-dense coffees, and here farmers with around 250 coffee trees each grow it under shade, alongside maize, bananas and beans.

Their cooperative is young by Kenyan standards, formed in 2004 when the giant Tetu cooperative split into smaller societies, and it now runs seven factories. With support from Coffee Management Services, farmers attend Good Agricultural Practice training year round and receive advances for school fees and farm inputs, while Kenya’s auction system rewards quality with second payments that can reach around 90% of the sale price after costs.

That reward starts with careful picking, because only ripe cherries are accepted at the factory. They’re pulped on a three-disc pulper, fermented overnight, then cleaned, soaked and dried on raised tables for 7 to 15 days, while the wastewater goes into soaking pits to be recirculated. Roasted for espresso, this washed lot of Ruiru 11, Batian, SL28, Geisha and SL34 pulls a dense, juicy shot of yellow plum and forest berries, lifted by redcurrant and settling into a rich brown sugar finish.