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Flavor Profile Dried orange peel, herbal, dark chocolate
Out of stock
Producers organized around Mwira and Muthuthuini factories, Gititu and Kangiri Farmer Cooperative Societies, and Rukera Estate
1700-2300 masl
SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, and Batian
Volcanic loam
Nyeri, Murang’a, Kiambu, and Embu counties, Kenya
Fully washed and dried in raised beds
April-June | October-December
Conventional
Many of us are accustomed to Kenya coffees being organized and sold in very small volumes that correspond to one specific estate or washing station (known as “factory” in Kenya) and one specific physical prep. While single-factory lots certainly dominate the highest quality tier, coffee exports as a whole in Kenya reflect the distribution of most producing countries elsewhere: as a wide triangle, with microlots at the top and bulk volumes of various transparency and quality standards comprising the larger, more efficient shipments. Kenya, working the way it does, means the microlot segment is proportionally large compared to other origins. But it rests upon, and interacts with, a bulk market nonetheless.
Each year Royal Coffee invests in select bulk lots with high transparency and very specific physical preparations, in addition to the microlot work. These coffees provide targeted profiles and roasting consistency over larger volumes and longer periods. There are myriad ways to build coffees like these, and considering the assertive attributes of Kenya’s coffee as a whole, each one is naturally a little different.
This year’s Kenya AB Plus, 47165, is a combination of processed coffee from select producing groups across Kenya’s famous central counties, whose deliveries are cupped and combined by profile and overall cup quality, and finally milled to a specific screen size distribution for export. The producers include the Muthuthuini Factory in Nyeri County, the Mwiria Factory in Embu County, Gititu Farmers Cooperative Society in Kiambu county, Kangiri Farmers Cooperative Society in Murang’a County, and finally Rukera Estate in Kiambu County. Bulk lots such as this one are created through collaboration between Royal and the exporter, first on the cupping table with representative samples and then duplicated by blending stock lots of pre-milled coffees to match. After the full lot is built, the coffee is re-sorted by color and density and packed for export.