bright, juicy coffee, with compact sweetness of raw sugars, notes of pomegranate, blackberry tea, honeydew melon, orange drink, and complex spices make for an aromatic aftertaste.
Nyeri finds itself between Mount Kenya and the Aberdare ranges; the Eastern flank of the Great Rift Valley. The Kikuyu, the largest ethnic group in Kenya, call Mount Kenya the ‘Mountain of Whiteness’. Nyeri town is the prime spot for commerce. Coffee and tea farms surround the town and are the most important cash crops in the county. From my personal experience, Nyeri should be the best growing region in Kenya that consistently produced high acidity, red currant taste washed coffee.
Kagumo is a “factory” (a coffee mill) that is part of the Aguthi Farmer’s Cooperative Society. It’s near Gaaki, Nyeri with average farms in the area at 1600 meter altitude, red volcanic loam soils (typical for the area). There are roughly 1300 members delivering their coffee cherry to this particular wet mill. Aguthi FCS, Gititu’s coffees represent special attention to sorting all the way through processing. As with other good coops in Nyeri, they always have the farmer separate the ripeness of the coffee cherry before submitting it for processing, removing under-ripes that create astringency in the cup. Small things like this make a huge difference in the resulting cup flavors.
Taste Notes
Taster in Sweet Maria’s Oakland lab all get a sense of juicing oranges in the dry grounds of City roasts, something like sweet Valencias, with forward facing brown sugar smells, clove oil, and a subtle floral rose note as well. Pouring hot water on the ground coffee lifts a caramely sweetness, but not without plump fruit notes underneath, the steam revealing lovely accents of raspberry, and blackberry. The cup flavors at City roast level are bright, and even a little juicy, with a compact sweetness of raw sugars that act as a sort of mortar holding it all together. The cup cools to a pleasantly tart note of pomegranate, blackberry tea, honeydew melon, orange drink (like Hi-C or Tang), and complex spices in an aromatic aftertaste. The sugary sweetness underneath adds a flavor note of sugar cane juice to the light roasts, that plays off the tart orange aspects that light up the sides of your tongue. Full City roasts do have a fair amount of roast bittering, but also are super juicy with dark fruit flavors like cranberry jelly, black grape, and a hint of tropical fruit punch. The fruited side wasn’t super prominent when the cup was hot, but slides its way into the spotlight as the temperature came down to a more drinkable level.
- Origin: Kenya
- Region: Nyeri
- Producer: Kagumo Factory, Aguthi FCS
- Altitude: 1600m
- Cultivar: SL-28, SL-34
- Grade: AB
- Processing: Fully Washed
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s