Our first Kenyan of the year is here and it's the return of an old favourite from Gichathaini. The Gichathaini wet mill is one of three washing stations that make up the Gikanda Farmers Cooperative Society in the Mathira West District of Kenya's Nyeri region. This factory itself is actually owned by the coffee farmers that deliver cherries to be processed. Around 1045 members make up the cooperative society, of which 770 actively sell their coffee through the mill and in turn, make elective decisions in terms of representatives and management positions at the factory. The factory is located about 6 km from the town of Karatina. The conditions in this specific area are ideal; abundant rainfall, average temperatures of 15°C to 26°C, fertile soil, and clean water from the Ragati river.

If you're a newsletter subscriber you might have noticed some discussion around roasting profiles for this particular coffee. Some of you were kind enough to send your feedback through from the two-way tasting pack and based on that feedback and our own internal testing we've arrived at a profile that we're very happy with. Tangy and sweet with a smooth mouthfeel and long finish.

Production: All coffees are pulped, dry fermented, washed and sundried

Most of the processing in Kenya is standardised, but some variation will occur depending on the management and their philosophy. Still, the below will count for most of the best performing coffees coming out of Kenya!

Farming and production

A typical wet mill can have about 1000 farmers with about 0.5 hectare of coffee each, delivering cherries. The coop/factory gives a small advance payment at delivery. The remaining payment will come after the coffee is sold at market. The better and well-managed wet mills are able to give more than 85% of the sales price back to the farmers. That’s after the cost of milling and marketing is deducted.

Cherry delivery

Is done at the wet mills or at collection centers. When the farmers arrive at the place for delivery they would normally have to empty their bags on the floor (on a cover) to sort out unripe, overripe and CBD infected cherries.

Pulping

When they start the pulper the cherries go by gravity in to the machine.

They normally use disc pulpers such as old three disc Agaarde or similar brands. The parchment flows from the discs with water allowing the parchment to be separated by density. The densest beans will sink and are pumped straight through a channel to the fermentation tank as P1 (parchment 1) and is what Nordic Approach are generally buying.

Fermentation

After pulping, the coffees are dry fermented (water is drained off) in painted concrete tanks. Normally they are fermented for 18-36 hours. Many factories do intermediate washing every 6 – 8 hours, meaning they add water, stir up the parchment and drain it again.

Washing and soaking

When fermentation is completed and the mucilage is dissolved the parchment gets washed in washing channels and graded again by density. The lighter beans will float off and the remaining dense parchment will normally be soaked in clean water up to 24 hours.

Drying and conditioning

After soaking, the coffees are skin dried at hessian mesh mats for skin drying up to one day. After a day the coffees are moved to the traditional drying tables. The coffee is then normally dried on a surface of jute clothing or shade net on top of the wire mesh.

The drying time varies between 12 and 20 days depending on weather and rainfall.