Kenya - Karumandi AA #023 [25/26]

One of our favourite Kenyans of the 24/25 season returns in fine form, with a slightly different presentation this year - the old-school Kenya currant-tomato axis as a backbone but with a super bright, electrifying acidity and complex herbal/citrus notes.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter

Lightest Roaster Influence: Super dense well sorted AA beans, with the potential for electric acidity? it can only mean one thing: a ripping hot and fast roast, absolutely yeeting them - because they can take it

Best Rested: 4+ weeks

Filter: 62g/L, 96°C. when fresh, can go down to 93°C with rest. Also great updosed with 66g/L for a more jammy cup

Espresso: Classic 18g in, 45g out, 23-26s, Also works as 50g+ 15s turbo/soup

We're tasting: Bright & fresh aromatics - tomato leaf, orange zest and lemon verbena. In the cup it's super juicy and bright with classic Kenyan currant notes - we find whitecurrant as the prominent character alongside blackcurrant leaf, white grapefruit & a juicy gooseberry & poached rhubarb backbone. As it cools the acidity and aromatics remind us of a high energy zippy riesling.

Traceability

The Story

Karumandi is one of twelve wet mills operated by Baragwi Farmers' Cooperative Society, which was registered in 1953 and remains among the larger societies in Kenya by membership. Consistency across Baragwi's sites is managed in part by rotating factory managers between wet mills every two years or so, which spreads working knowledge through the society rather than concentrating it at whichever station happens to be performing, and it goes some way to explaining why individual Baragwi factories tend to hold their form across seasons rather than spiking and fading; and indeed Karumandi had the second highest cherry price paid to farmers last season out of all the Baragwi FCS sites.

Last year's main crop saw near picture perfect weather for ripening, with a ripping return to form in quality and heavy AA grade outturns. This year's been a bit of a mixed bag - like many east African countries we've seen an early harvest, and initial predictions expected limited availability. Nordic Approach responded to this by selecting shipping early, seeing strong quality in early harvest lots (when typically they might have waited for later/mid harvest pickings, which traditionally saw the strongest quality). It's turned out that early, mid and late harvest are all good, and there was more coffee available than initially expected, so we've got a pipeline of coffees arriving from now until the end of autumn with some unique expressions of the plethora of Kenyan profiles available.

Many of the structural and regulatory changes that caused massive disruption to the Kenyan coffee market have settled in now - and quality continues to improve year on year. We're hearing moves are continuing to improve payment structures and price discovery, and despite the pressures that farmers are facing (more profitable crops, urban encroachment and the average age of coffee farmers now approaching 60, with urban migration being the typical route for the next generation) we still think there's hope yet for Kenyan production.