Spice-forward flavor notes contrast underlying caramel sweetness, notes of cinnamon steeped tea, cardamom, bergamot, English Breakfast tea, and fruited hints of apple and Bosc pear.
This lot is a blend of very small peaberry selections from six different farmer groups in Nyeri, Gatanga, Kiambu and Kirinyaga growing regions. “Wakulima Ndogo” means “small farmers” in Swahili, which appropriately describes the size of farms contributing to this 10 bags peaberry blend. The coffees are all wet processed using a disc coffee depulper to first remove the outer layer of fruit. At this stage, the coffee seeds still have a thin layer of transparent mucilage intact, that requires an overnight fermentation in water to break down, and then wash away with clean water the following morning. What’s left is a green coffee bean inside a paper-like, parchment layer, that is left intact during the 10-14 day drying time, and helps protect the coffee while drying.
The coffee farms range from 1600 to 2000 meters above sea level. Most farmers are growing a mix of SL-28 and SL-34, both bourbon variants, as well as Ruiru-11 and Batian. Peaberries are an outlier, and occur when one of the two embryos that every coffee cherry contains dies. The one that survives continues to develop, taking on the round shape of the cherry, instead of a flat surface as a normal, 2-bean cherry produces. Every coffee shrub produces some peaberries, but in very small amount (around 3%).
The cup is more spice-forward than fruited, though both offer a nice contrast to the underlying caramel sweetness in the cup. The fragrance and aroma give off hints of malic type fruits like apple and pear, wrapped in spiced notes of clove and anise, and a well developed caramelized sweetness underneath. City roasts brew up flavors of cinnamon steeped tea, sweetened with raw sugar, and complex spiced aromatics of cardamom and bergamot. The coffee cools to golden apple and a mix of pectin-like sweetness and mouth cleansing aspects that reminds me of a Bosc pear. An aromatic black tea note echos English Breakfast and ties into the long aftertaste. While light roasts are devoid of cocoa roast flavors, Full City develops a pleasant bitter chocolate note that is like a very high % cacao chocolate bar, accented by hints of raisin and nutmeg. Beyond flavor, this peaberry scores high for body too, the juicy mouthfeel particularly prevalent with medium roast development.
- Origin: Kenya
- Region: Central Kenya
- Farm: blend of 6 farm groups in Nyeri, Gatanga, Kiambu and Kirinyaga
- Altitude: 1600-2000m
- Cultivars: SL-28, SL-34, Ruiru-11, Batian
- Processing: Wet process (Washed)
- Drying: Raised Bed Sun-dried
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s