Kenya Baragwi Guama Factory AA TOP

Raisins, Green Tea, Honey Melon

 

Baragwi Farmers Cooperative Society oversees the operations of all 12 member cooperatives with a combined total of 16,000 farmer members. The group, common to cooperative societies country-wide, has a farmer-elected board with members from each sublocation. Kenya is of course known for some of the most meticulous at-scale processing that can be found anywhere in the world. Bright white parchment, nearly perfectly sorted by density and bulk conditioned at high elevations is the norm, and a matter of pride, even for generations of Kenyan processing managers who prefer drinking Kenya’s tea (abundantly farmed in nearby Muranga county) to its coffee. Ample water supply in the central growing regions has historically allowed factories to wash, and wash, and soak, and wash their coffees again entirely with fresh, cold river water.

The Guama factory, which opened in 1974, is named after the local village and serves 3,500 smallholder producers who, on average, each have around 85 trees. Coffees at the factory are fermented in fresh water from the Kaboyo River and dried in the sun on raised beds.

Coffees from this area are known for having the smooth body and dynamic acidity that coffees from Kenya are prized for.

Area: Guama Factory, Kirinyaga

Process: Fully Washed

Variety: SL28, SL34

Altitude: 1700 – 1800m