For all you Kenyan coffee fans out there, we've got two sparkly new options for you to try! This one, from Gatina Washing Station in Nyeri, Central Kenya, has notes of Lemon, Lime, Honey and Cranberry. Washed Kenyan coffees are some of the most distinctive you can find. There’s a juicy, acidic, floral quality that you can’t get anywhere else in the world. We’re lucky to have three of the best this year. We bought this coffee through our good friend Tash Murphy at Sucafina who is responsible for getting us on to lots of stand out coffees, thanks Tash!
We sourced this coffee through our friends at Sucafina. Here's a bit more about Gatina from the Sucafina website:
Gatina Washing Station sits a few kilometers outside the town of Karatina in Nyeri County. The station was built in 1968, nestled between the western slopes of Mt. Kenya and the eastern slopes of the Aberdares mountains. It is managed by Mugaga Farmers’ Cooperative Society. Today, the station receives cherry from 790 members. Of those, 280 (over 30%!) are women.
The 790 members of Gatina station cultivate a total of 142 hectares. This breaks down to about a tenth of a hectare—or a few hundred trees—per farmer. Such small coffee ‘gardens’ makes it possible, vital even, to focus on specialty processing and increase the value per kilogram of cherry picked. Farm labor is usually entirely provided by family members, which can often make maintaining specialty cultivation and picking practices easier. Many of the farmers also grow tea, maize and legumes to consume or sell at local markets for additional cash income.
Farmers selectively handpick ripe cherry and deliver it directly to Gatina, or one of the 4 collection points created to ease transport burdens on more distant farms. Cherry is hand-sorted at intake and damaged, overripes, and underripes are removed before pulping. The role of the cherry clerk, who must ensure that only the ripest cherry is processed, is of paramount importance. Farmers will not be allowed to submit sub-par cherry and must take any rejected cherry home with them to dry on beds or mats. This cherry can then be submitted at the end of the season as mbuni grade for a much lower price. In this way, farmers are incentivized to only pick cherry that is truly at its peak.
Cherry is pulped with a three-disc pulper and then fermented overnight. All water for pulping and fermentation is drawn from fresh rivers flowing from the many streams on Mt. Kenya and the Aberdares Mountains. Following fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water, soaked and spread to dry on raised drying beds. Parchment dries for 7 to 15 days. Throughout the drying process, parchment is frequently turned to promote even drying and covered during the hottest part of the day to maintain steady temperatures. Employees also inspect drying parchment and remove any damaged or discolored beans. Once dry, parchment is delivered to Kahawa Bora Millers, one of our Sister companies in Kenya.
Elevation: 1800-2050 MASL
Varietal: Batian, Ruiru 11, SL28, SL34
Cup score: 87.5
Price paid per kg: £8.06
Process: Fully washed