The Great Rift Valley of Kenya is a breathtaking and serene natural landscape that extends from the Tanzania boarder to the long Lake Turkana, about 120 kilometers north of Nairobi. The lower section of the valley is broad, fertile, and full of natural phenomenon—volcanic lakes (a critical part of the migratory route of huge numbers of Asian and African birds), mud flats, and dramatic escarpments on the east and west sides. It’s both archeologically significant and a consistent draw for domestic vacationers. It is not, however, often associated with Kenya specialty coffee. Occasionally buyers come across coffees from Kenya’s far western highlands, on the other side of the Rift Valley from Mt. Kenya and its surrounding counties, but it’s very rare to find a coffee from inside the valley itself.
That doesn’t mean impossible. Teremuka Estate is a 110-hectare coffee estate managed via a cooperative model, by numerous shareholders. It was established as a private estate in 1950, but was converted to cooperative ownership after Kenya’s independence in 1963. It is located in Nakuru county, which spans a southern stretch of the Rift Valley northwest of Nairobi. Despite many assumptions the Rift Valley in this part of Africa contains some very high elevations, with plateaus at 1800 meters or higher, and while different in climate from Kenya’s famous central counties, this still creates an ideal condition for growing quality coffee.
Coffee’s history in Kenya is short compared to Ethiopia, its neighbor to the north, with the introduction of coffee occurring around the turn of the 19th century at the hands of British missionaries who brought bourbon-lineage coffee trees from Brazil. As the value of the cash crop grew in the European marketplace, the British settlers would force indigenous Africans out of the trade by outlawing coffee production outside their colonial estate network. It wouldn’t be until the years of conflict prior to Kenya’s independence, from 1952-1960, that indigenous Africans would be permitted to plant coffee—although for years afterward plantings were severely limited and none of the coffee produced by smallholders was permitted to be consumed. Since independence, the large estate holdings have evolved to reflect Kenya’s modern demographic: ownership can be single families, corporations, or groups of shareholders, such as Teremuka Estate. Not only does the farm itself provide an investment for the owners, but its location in the Rift Valley makes it a uniquely large employer for surrounding families.
Harvesting is done by hand at Teremuka, by the same picking and sorting standards as the central counties in Kenya. Cherry is pulped same-day and fermented overnight, before being washed and graded the following morning into 4 separate densities. After grading is complete parchment is dried 10-15 days on raised beds, bulked, and then delivered to NKG Coffee Mill for dry milling and grading for sale.
