We're absolutely buzzing while we wait for our purchases from Kenya to arrive. These vibrant coffees offer a colorful rainbow of flavors ranging from blackberry, jasmine, and maple, to butterscotch, sweet tarts, and crème brûlée!
It's easy to find a traceable Kenyan coffee of outstanding quality, but the real challenge is in the effort to build long-standing, trust-based relationships with farmers who are willing to work with us exclusively year after year. These kinds of mutually beneficial relationships are what our sourcing team is working toward and is why we have access to high-quality first lot selections.
Our four-year relationship with the Gitwe Cooperative is an example of this work, and it's stronger every year. Gitwe Cooperative's three washing stations, Karatu, Kibiru, and Karinga, are all located in the Aberdare Mountains of Kiambu County, an hour outside of Nairobi. The Cooperative is extremely small by Kenyan standards at around 800 farmers. Each farmer's geographic location determines which washing station they would contribute to.
We know you're looking forward to these, too. So, we thought we'd share some of the coffees with their estimated time of arrival:
- Karatu AA Micro Lot 20 (Launching July 21, 2020)
- Karatu Peaberry Micro Lot 20 (August 2020)
- Kibiru AA Micro Lot 20 (August 2020)
- Kibiru Peaberry Micro Lot 16 (August 2020)
- Karatu AA Micro Lot 16 (September 2020)
- Karatu Peaberry Micro Lot 16 (September 2020)
- Karatu Peaberry Micro Lot 19 (Fall 2020)
- Karinga Peaberry Micro Lot 19 (Fall 2020)
AA and Peaberry are grades that indicate the size of the beans. While it's not a perfect way to distinguish the actual quality in the cup, like-sized coffee beans tend to produce similar characteristics and will roast more consistently when they're all the same size! We invite you to taste these different lots coming out of each washing station and see what differences/preferences you experience!