Kenya AB Kikima FCS 2023

Kikima Farmers Cooperative Society & Nzaini Coffee Factory

The Nzaini Factory is made up of over 700 members and is one of the factories under the Kikima Farmers Cooperative Society in Machakos County. Kikima FCS itself is part of a larger umbrella organization – the Machakos Cooperative Union – that oversees 34 coffee societies across the Machakos and Makueni Counties. The Union offers a wide range of services, including transport, bookkeeping, accounting, education and training, as well as access to coffee seedlings.

This Kenya green coffee micro-lot features notes of apple, red currant, and white grape notes with a bright acidity and medium body.

Kenya Green Coffee Beans

Kenya green coffee beans are celebrated for bold, fruit-forward flavors that pack a punch in complex acidity. SL-28 and SL-34 are two of the most well-known varietals grown here, developed by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in the 1930s for drought resistance, exceptional cup quality, and large yield at high altitudes. After a coffee berry disease (CBD) epidemic in 1968, the CBD-immune Ruiru-11 varietal was developed and quickly adopted throughout the country.

Kenya coffee production has upheld quality and consistency throughout the years with detail-oriented management at the washing stations. Over 600,000 smallholder farmers around the country are organized into Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCS) that oversee traceability and quality control for its membership body.

Kenya Coffee Processing

Producers handpick ripe cherries in the early morning and carry them to the wet mill, where the cherries are splayed out for sorting. Clean water is poured into the de-pulper, and the outer fruit of the cherries is removed between two rotating abrasive slabs. De-pulped beans sink into the fermentation tank, where they’re left overnight for the mucilage to break down.

The wet mill manager checks the fermentation tanks the next day and makes the decision to proceed with processing upon “feeling” the fermented parchment. As washed beans spill out into washing channels, producers repeatedly push the coffee with wooden shunts to sort beans by density. The denser, high-quality beans are then left to sun-dry on raised beds until they reach 10-12% moisture content.