Kenya Kiandu AA (250g)
Bright, pungent, complex. Fresh-cut fir, tartly sweet dried plums – toffee, blackberry, red currant – ripe orange and tomato in aroma and cup. Richly balanced acidity with syrupy, lively mouthfeel. Very sweet, deeply flavor-saturated finish.
Factory: Kiandu AA
The Kiandu Coffee Factory is part of the Mutheka Coffee Farmer’s Society, consisting of almost 6,000 active members. There is a common average of about 160 coffee trees per farmer, and most farms grow other crops such as maize, beans, and sweet potatoes.
After picking, ripe cherry is brought to the factory by smallholder farmers, before it undergoes processing to remove the skin and pulp – known as the wet processing method. The factory is using a Mc Kinnon three disc pulper to remove the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that is protecting the green coffee bean, before coffee undergoes a dry fermentation to break down the mucilage sticking to the parchment, staying in the fermentation tanks for 18 to 24 hours. Then, coffee travels through washing channels to insure all fruit is removed and goes through one final overnight soak before being spread out on raised drying tables. Time on the drying tables depends on climate, ambient temperature and total production volumes undergoing processing, and can take from 7 to 15 days in total.
Mutheka FCS is a relatively new entity formed in 2004 after the split of the Giant Tetu Coffee Growers Co-Operative Society. The FCS is situated in Nyeri County in the east of Aberdare ranges and West of Mt. Kenya and operates 7 factories: Chorong’i, Kaiguri, Kamuyu, Kigwandi, Kihuyo and Muthua-ini (along with Kiandu, of course) with total membership of around 6,000 small scale coffee growers.
Kenya Kiandu Aa Nyeri arrived to our Roastery via Mercanta.
Mercanta supplies specialty roasters around the world with the world’s very best green coffees. Founded in 1996 in a small office in Southwest London, Mercanta now sources a huge variety of outstanding coffees from 20 producing countries, which our experienced team of Coffee Hunters offer from their 6 warehouses located on three different continents. Mercanta’s first priority is quality – they only buy coffees that they think are exceptional, and they cup them daily in their state of the art lab.
About Kiandu
PRODUCER:Mutheka Farmers Co-Operative Society
TERROIR:Tetu & Nyeri
ALTITUDE:1810 m
PROCESS:Washed
ARRIVED IN:60 kg bags
VARIETIES:Sl28 & Sl34
AROMA:Toffee, Citrus
FLAVOR:Red currant, Lime, toffee
BODY:Juicy
FINISH:Eucalyptus, Dried plums, Raspberry
Screen sizing in Kenya
The AA, AB and other grades used to classify lots in Kenya are an indication of screen size only. They are not any indication of cup quality. The AA grade in Kenya is equivalent to screen size 17 or 18 (17/64 or 18/64 of an inch) used at other origins. AA grades often command higher prices at auction though this grade is no indication of cup quality and an AB lot from a better farm may cup better. PB (denoting Peaberry) is the smallest screen size.
