Crown Jewel Kenya Othaya Rukira Washed

Taste

Taste Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano

We don’t usually do this…but we couldn’t help ourselves.  

A fly-crop is a harvest that happens opposite to the typical harvest cycle. Kenya’s main harvest is in the winter, while the fly crop harvest occurs in the summer. Over the years, due to cultivar selection and improved processing practices, fly cropped quality from Kenya is on the climb. 

On the cupping table, the team got lots of sweetness with heavy notes of caramel, fudge, plum, and molasses from our first fly crop Crown Jewel. There is also that zesty quality that you often see in Kenyan profiles. 

In the brew, the team found a more delicate and complex savory sweetness in the cup. Think peach black tea coupled with cherry, sweet butterscotch, rosemary sprigs, and watermelon. A lovely balance between the soft textures from the black tea notes, herbal aromatics, and candy like sweetness. 

Zesty flavors are not to be missed as well, from orange zest to Meyer lemon, there is a liveliness to this coffee. In some brews, there were even hints of mint and chocolate.  

We loved the versatility of this coffee and the quality of this off-season harvest. Great on pour-over, espresso, drip, cold brew – take your pick!  

This coffee has also been selected for a Royal x Swiss Water collaboration to curate a decaf Kenyan coffee for you all. If you are in the Bay Area, check out our happy hour, where you will get the chance to taste this coffee before and after decaffeination.

Source

Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger with Chris Kornman 

Kenya’s coffees, menu staples for specialty roasters, are cherished for their exclusivity and unique flavor profiles, making their relative scarcity all the more alluring. The main crop in Kenya is harvested in the winter months, typically November to January, but this particular selection is from what’s often referred to as “fly crop” (or “mitaca”), an off-season harvest from the summer, typically smaller in total volumes and often overlooked by picky buyers. However, climate shifts over recent years in addition to improved variety plantings and refined processing techniques are slowly changing longstanding bias and upgrading the availability of some of our favorite flavors to year-round status. As an example, we submit to you this recently-landed and lovely-tasting microlot from the Rukira site. 

Mt. Kenya, at the helm of Kenya’s Central Province, is the second tallest peak on the continent of Africa and a commanding natural presence. The mountain itself is a single point inside a vast and surreal thicket of ascending national forest and active game protection communities. The central counties of Kenya extend from the center of the national park, like six irregular pie slices, with their points meeting at the peak of the mountain. It is along the lower edge of these forests where, in wet, high elevation communities with mineral-rich soil (Mt. Kenya is a stratovolcano) many believe the best coffees in Kenya, often the world, are crafted. 

Nyeri is perhaps the most well-known of these central counties. Kenya’s coffee is dominated by a cooperative system of production, whose members vote on representation, marketing and milling contracts for their coffee, as well as profit allocation. Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society, the umbrella organization that includes Rukira Factory, is one of Kenya’s larger societies, with 19 different factories and more than 14,000 farmer members across the southern Nyeri region. The Rukira Factory has 800 members, 600 of whom are actively harvesting and delivering to the processing center. The factory’s total cherry intake tends to hover around 150,000 kgs, meaning the average member of Rukira is farming enough coffee fruit for roughly one 30kg unit of exportable green. 

The economics of smallholder systems are consistently difficult, and in Kenya in particular the number of individual margins sliced off an export price before payment reaches the actual farms is many, leaving only a small percentage to support coffee growth itself, and most often this arrives many months after harvest. However, Kenya coffees are sold competitively by quality, which means well-endowed counties like Nyeri achieve very high average prices year after year, and the smallholders here with a few hundred coffee trees at the most, plus additional land uses available and local job markets, are widely considered to be middle class. 

Kenya is of course known for some of the most meticulous at-scale processing that can be found anywhere in the world. Bright white parchment, nearly perfectly sorted by density and bulk conditioned at high elevations is the norm, and a matter of pride, even for generations of Kenyan processing managers who prefer drinking Kenya’s tea (abundantly farmed in nearby Muranga county) to its coffee. Ample water supply in the central growing regions has historically allowed factories to wash, and wash, and soak, and wash their coffees again entirely with fresh, cold river water. Conservation is creeping into the discussion in certain places–understandably in the drier areas where water, due to climate change, cannot be as taken for granted—but for the most part Kenya continues to thoroughly wash and soak its coffees according to tradition. The established milling and sorting by grade, or bean size, is a longstanding tradition and positions Kenya coffees well for roasters, by tightly controlling the physical preparation and creating a diversity of profiles from a single processing batch. 

Green

Green Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Ruiru 11, Batian, Sl28, and SL 24 make up the mix of cultivars found in this lot. These are of high cup quality and common to the region. SL28 and SL24 are both cultivars from Scotts Lab, selected for climate and disease resistance in the 1930s. 

The water supply in the region allows for double and sometimes even triple washing depending on the location. Kenya’s infrastructure has long been established in the country and supports the caliber of quality you expect from the region. 

Moisture content is in perfect range, with an above-average density reading. The screen size is tightly compacted in the 16 to 17 range. With the larger beans and condensed screen size, you can expect the coffee to handle a little extra heat in the roaster. 

Diedrich

Diedrich IR5 Analysis by Doris Garrido

It’s always a pleasure to roast Kenyan coffee, as I’m fascinated by high-density beans and enjoy driving fast roast with minimum gas adjustment.   

This time, it’s a Kenyan Othaya Rukira coffee- one of our team’s favorites- and I had a great time roasting it. I like making simple adjustments, and Kenyan coffees are perfect for that. I go with a hot start and then let the roast progress. On our drum Diedrich roaster, we use high heat from the beginning, taking advantage of its slow temperature drop to carry us through caramelization and control the roast finish. 

I preheated the roaster to a stable temperature of 446°F and started the roast using 100% gas. This lasted about three minutes after which I reduced the gas to 30%. Next, I introduced some airflow to help during the yellowing stage and promote caramelization. The first crack began at 387°F, with a rate of change of 23 degrees in a minute. Development time was one minute and 40 seconds, and the drop temperature was 400°F. 

It was a very straightforward roast: high temperature at the start, then leveraging the airflow at the end. The result is a cup with interesting citric notes, like cara cara oranges, lemony mandarins, green mango, peach, guava, raisins, and a finish of rhubarb sweet tea. 

This Kenya coffee has a softer body, with a delicate acidity balanced by a delightful sweetness that makes it incredibly enjoyable. 

Aillio

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman  

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

I’m always enthusiastic to have a Kenyan coffee on the menu and getting one in the cold months really help raise my spirits! I’ve often seen coffee from the Rukira factory grace the offering sheet here at Royal Coffee, but generally during the main crop. Some things I expect from a Kenyan coffee: high density, even-handed moisture content, consistent screen size, and an early crack. I was not disappointed on any of these fronts. 

Approaching the machine, I knew that this coffee would need plenty of heat to get roasting, so I started with a charge temperature of 464F and worked towards getting this coffee through green/drying stage quickly to preserve acidity. A little after turning point, I engaged fan speed to F3, but didn’t lower my heat from P9 to P8 until peak rate of change. I modulated the power downward slowly as the roast progressed, and engaged F4 at about 350F in order to draw out Maillard reactions just a little longer.  

Ikawa

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

It’s so exciting having fresh Kenyan at an unexpecting time of the year. This fly-crop Kenya was selected for a Crown Jewel and as part of a collaboration between Swiss Water and Royal.  

On the high-density roast, we got flavors of bright lemon-lime life. A juicy body of peaches and raspberry jam makes up the bulk of this coffee. The light-density roast with the lower temps brought out a little bit more lemongrass and lemon tea notes.  

I recommend going with the high-density roast to get the most out of the zesty and sweet stone fruit flavors.  

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

• Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 
• Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

Brew

Brew Analysis by MJ Smith 

Kenyan coffees are truly a blessing, especially this one that is so far out of regular Kenya coffee season! I think this may have been my first time trying a fly-crop coffee, which in my mind just makes it that much more exciting! After reading the Source Analysis and learning about fly-crops and how they’re often overlooked by picky buyers, I fell even harder for this coffee. I’ll always root for an underdog! On top of the exciting assortment of tasting notes that typically come with Kenyan coffees, this one has a unique cooling effect on the finish that I’ve never really experienced before. When I inhaled through my mouth after drinking it, I could swear that it felt a little cold! At first I thought maybe accidentally ate a mint prior to tasting it that I forget about (or that maybe I had officially lost my mind) but it was noticeable in every brew that I made, and then Alisha validated my palate when she told me that she noticed it while tasting the shots for the espresso analysis.   

The first brew I want to talk about was done on a V60 and had a dose of 19g, a grind size of 11, and total brew time of about 3:30. The first thing that came to mind when I took my first sip was chocolate Teddy Grahams. That feels kind of silly to write, but I really don’t know how else to describe it! Once I got past the initial wave of nostalgia, I was greeted by a parade of sugary sweetness, citrus, and fresh herbs. Personally, I noticed lemon drop candies, clementine, toasted sesame, mint, sage, and eucalyptus tea. Some notable notes from the rest of the team include graham crackers, chocolate, malt, basil, rosemary, black tea, and orange candy. All in all, very delicious!  

For the next brew, I wanted to switch things up a bit with the brewing device, so I traded out the V60 for our adorable green F70 from Saint Anthony. It had a dose of 18.5g, a grind size of 11, and a brew time of about 3:20. Although I really enjoyed the cleanliness of the V60, I wanted to see how this coffee would behave on flat-bottom brewer. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised! While the first brew was much airier and more effervescent, this one was much heavier on the sugary notes and a little lighter on the citrus. I picked out notes of piloncillo, pear, peach tea, Meyer lemon, and balsamic, and again with the slightly minty-cool finish, while the rest of the team was tasting Andes chocolate mints, black tea, orange zest, rosemary, watermelon, tropical fruit, peach, and malt ball.  

If I had to pick my favorite between these two, I really don’t know which I would say! They were both so delicious, I swear! Whether you’re using a flatbottom or cone-shaped brew device, I found that a higher grind and average dose worked best. This was a really exciting coffee, and I had a lot of fun working with it, and it’s even cooler because it’s from a fly-crop that could have easily been overlooked. I definitely recommend that you get your hands on some of this before it’s gone! I promise you won’t regret it! 

espresso

Espresso Analysis by Alisha Rajan

As an espresso, this fly-crop harvest from Rukira Factory in Nyeri has proven to be both classic yet unexpected in its presentation. My personal association of Kenyan coffees with herbal/savory and tomato-centric flavor profiles was satisfied yet simultaneously subverted by this traditionally produced coffee. Although the savory tomato notes were certainly present, they were encompassed by the intensity of blackberry, candy-like peach, and the underlying warmth of cinnamon and clove. Rounded out by freshness of mint, this was a thoroughly intriguing tasting experience from beginning to end.  

I began the espresso analysis with a lower dose of 17.5 grams and a conservative 1:2 ratio for the extraction. Though the brightness was pleasant, I was interested in bringing out some sweeter notes and a fuller body. A slightly higher dose yielded more fruit flavors such as mandarin orange, peach rings, and sour gummy worms.  

One of my favorite shots of espresso came in at an 18.0g dose, a 42.8g yield, extracted in 30 seconds. Though the body was still on the lighter side due to the higher yield, the savoriness in the beginning was punctuated by the sweetness of intense blackberry and cinnamon notes that left me wanting more. 

Another one of my favorite shots came in at an 18.3g dose, 40.5g yield, extracted in 28 seconds. This one had a delectably buttery mouthfeel and presented with a more traditional flavor profile of juicy tomatoes and herbs but also had some lovely toffee, peach, and blackberry notes.  

Overall, I would suggest a low to moderate dose, a higher yield, and a lower extraction time to bring out the balance between the sweet and savory elements of this coffee. Although this coffee does tend towards a lighter body, I still found it pleasantly buttery when the dose was around 18 grams. I am anxiously anticipating the arrival of this coffee on our Crown Jewel menu. I hope dialing this in will be as “fruitful” (pun intended) for you as it has been for me. Enjoy!