Kiangai - Kenya - SL28, SL34, & Batian - Washed
More delicious Kenyan coffee! This is a juicy coffee from smallholder farmers on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya. The land here is host to mineral rich,
fertile red-volcanic soils that produce loud, expressive washed coffees. Expect a classic Kenyan profile with notes of lemongrass, black tea and grapefruit!
Info
Factory
Kiangai Factory is owned and operated by Kibirigwi Farmers Cooperative Society (FCS) and is well known for producing high quality coffee.
Region
The locals call Mt. Kenya ‘Kirinyaga’, the namesake of the county, meaning the 'crest of whiteness' due to its famous snow-capped peaks.
Curiosities
Kirinyaga is mainly a tea-growing region and most of the coffee trees here have been planted rather recently, just before the rise of hybrid varietals in Kenya, less than 1% of the coffee delivered to stations are Ruiru 11, and around 10% is Batian. It's increasingly rare to find a lot that is made up of mostly SL28 and SL34 in Kenya like this one. Unlike some neighbouring regions, soils here haven't been depleted by years of conventional agriculture, meaning these high quality varieties can thrive without the need to be replaced by more disease-resistant hybrids.
Elevation
The region is host to high elevations of up to 1750 masl on the rich, red-volcanic soils of Mt. Kenya.
Variety
This lot is made up of 90% SL28 and SL34, with 10% Batian. These SL varieties were bred by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in the 1930's for their resistance to drought and was widely planted throughout Kenya. Fortunately, the cup quality happens to be exceptional. The SL varieties are a big reason why, for decades, Kenyan coffee was regarded as the best in the world.
Process
The Kiangai factory uses Kenya's 'double washed' method which involves pulping, fermenting in mucillage, washing, a secondary 'soaking', and finally drying on raised African beds.
Kiangai
"Kiangai washing station is located on the western periphery of Kirinyaga county (at the very border of Nyeri county) at the Southern slopes of the Mt Kenya highlands with rich and fertile red volcanic soils."
The factory has a capture area that lies between 1650m to 1750m above the sea level, the active farmers/members delivering coffee cherry to the factory number about 1000, they own an average of 0.1 ha of land where they cultivate food crops such as maize and beans for their subsistence. The coffee is fully washed, the farmers pick only the ripe berries and it is delivered to the washing station on the same day for processing. Hand Sorting (removal of unripe, diseased and overripe berries) takes place beforehand to ensure only the ripe berries are brought in, the pulping takes place using fresh water from the nearby Kibirigwi river. It is dry fermented and washed, and the parchment is dried on raised beds for 10-14 days.
Kibirigwi
"Kibirigwi cooperative society manage 8 factories in Kirinyaga.".
The individuals that make up the collective actually grow more tea than coffee. The Kibirigwi FCS provides financing to those who require financial assistance before the harvest is complete. There are a number of challenges, including lack of access to enough loan facilities and high costs of agricultural inputs. But the FCS is encouraging producers to shift to coffee rather than tea, since the value of coffee is higher and production is gradually increasing.
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