Kenya, Karatina AA

A coffee collected from smallholders around the base of Mount Kenya, and meticulously processed through a 72hr triple fermentation.

Most farmers in Kenya are smallholders and typically produce enough cherry for just a few bags. So they join cooperatives which markets and sells coffee on behalf of the whole community. This benefits the co-op members by giving them greater buying power. This coffee is from the co-op, Barichu, and this lot is named after the processing facility, Karatina. AA refers to the grade this coffee received. AA is the top tier in Kenya's coffee grading scale.

After the shareholders bring their freshly picked coffee cherries to the Karatina processing facility, it undergoes its first process to remove the skin and pulp known as the wet processing method. The nearest water source is the Kangunu stream, and the facility is dependent on electrical pumps to move water to reservoir tanks before using it for processing. Water is also recirculated for conservation. The factory is using a disc pulper with three sets of discs to remove the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that is protecting the green coffee bean. After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight to break down the sugars, before it is cleaned, soaked and spread out on the raised drying tables. Time on the drying tables depends on climate, ambient temperature, and volumes under processing, and can take from 7 to 15 days in total.