We taste: notes of a dark and stormy cocktail (spicy ginger beer, dark rum, angostura bitters and lime juice) and gooey molasses cookies are complemented by a tropical and sweet brightness reminding us of pomegranate, black currant and coconut.

Producer: 1250 members located around the Ndima-ini Coffee Factory

Region: Karatina, Nyeri County, Kenya

Elevation: 1,800 meters above sea level

Process: Fully Washed

Coffee Story*

We come to Ndimaini factory in Nyeri county in a drizzle that softens trees and structures behind a veil of mist, and as we stand under the tin roof of the sorting shed, the rain keeps up a constant patter. No matter. Farmers are still out picking, as they do rain or shine, because coffee doesn’t wait. This early in the morning, the nearly 4-foot square digital scale sits idle and all the parchment on the drying tables is tucked away under yellow tarp-blankets, waiting for the return of the warm Kenyan sun.

Moving from sorting shed to collection tanks, empty and waiting for the day’s harvest, to the stalwart disk pulper in signature beat-up red, we find John Irungu Gikonyo, assistant machine operator, washing out the last of yesterday’s cherry skins and leaving the washing channels clean and empty, ready to carry the next lot of pulped coffee into elegant black fermentation tanks.

In this snapshot moment (late July) the early harvest, or fly crop is petering out, but come late August, the main crop will startrolling in. It will max out in October/November before winding down toward the end of January. During peak season, when all 1250 cooperative members are picking their coffee, the coffee factory may receive up to 300,000 kg of ripe cherry in a 4-day period, enough to fill all their drying tables.

*written by Catalyst Trade