Karatu

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.

This lot comes from the Karatu washing station and was produced as the 16th lot of the season, or harvest day. Before export, coffee is sifted through screen filters and graded by bean size. The bean size of this lot is called AB. AB bean size is the second largest sized beans screened grade exported out of the country and makes up 80% of the exported size in Kenya annually.

This coffee was purchased to Fair For All standards. Learn more at FairForAll.Coffee - This specific lot, the 16th of the season from Karatu is part of our purchases that we directly negotiated as part of a larger buying program with the Gitwe Cooperative. We have based pricing on the quality of the coffee IE cupping score, and the grade of the coffee for example AA grade coffees receive the highest prices regardless of quality. Also because of the reputation and demand, the Karatu Factory within the Gitwe Cooperative receives the highest prices for their coffees. We purchased the entire 7,920 LBS of Karatu AB Micro Lot 16 for $5.00 per LB. We scored this micro-lot 88 points at the time of purchase. Coffee needs to be sustainable for the farmers who grow it, at the time we purchase this micro-lot the standard price for coffee was $1.03 per lb, and Fair Trade prices were at $2.00.