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Day 5- Kenya Kiangundo AA

Semi-Pro Coffee

Kiangundo is a washing station – or factory, as they are called in Kenya – established in 1974 and located in Nyeri County in the Karatina Municipality. It is one of four active washing stations – along with its sisters Gachuiro, Ichuga and Kiamaina – owned by the Kiama Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Society (FCS). Kiama is made up of over 2,100 producers who farm in Kenya’s central highlands.

Kiangundo receives coffee cherries from about 690 (520 male and 170 female) of the cooperative’s members who grow coffee trees on nearby farms, located between 1,700-1,900 meters above sea level. The factory manager is David Kamau, who has been overseeing the collection and careful processing of the coffee cherries for the last two years. Besides David, Kiangundo employs five permanent staff members and an additional eight workers during the season.

HOW THIS LOT WAS PROCESSED

All the coffee cherry is hand-picked and delivered on the same day to the washing station, where it undergoes meticulous sorting. This is also done by hand and is overseen by a ‘cherry clerk’ who ensures any unripe and damaged cherries are removed. The ripe cherry is then digitally weighed and recorded, and the farmer receives a receipt of delivery.

The coffee is then placed in a receiving tank and pulped using a four-disc pulping machine to remove the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that protects the green coffee bean. After being pulped, the coffee is sorted by weight using water, with the highest quality and densest beans being separated out from the lighter, lower-quality beans.

The coffee is then dry fermented for 20–24 hours, to break down the sugars and remove the mucilage (sticky fruit covering) from the outside of the beans. Whilst the coffee is fermenting it is checked intermittently and when it is ready it is rinsed and removed from the tanks and placed in a washing channel.

The parchment-covered coffee is then washed with fresh water from the nearby Ragati River and sent through water channels for grading by weight. The heavier coffee, which sinks, is considered the higher quality, sweeter coffee, and any lighter density or lower grade coffee beans are removed. The beans are then sent to soaking tanks where they sit underwater for a further 48 hours. This process increases the proteins and amino acids, which in turn heightens the complexity of the acidity.

About This Roaster

Semi-Pro Coffee. Dumb name, right?

That’s kind of the point.

Ultimately if you’re the kind of person who is turned off by the name, you’re not the kind of person who is going to be turned on by us.

We love coffee.

Probably more than you.

I know you went to Melbourne once and the barista talked you into an espresso that you awkwardly suffered through so now you know things. But here’s the deal. We went to Melbourne too. And we ordered our own espresso, and we kind of liked it.

Fast forward a few years and here we are. A group of people who love what we do and are proud of what we serve. We source and roast some wonderful coffees from wonderful, hard working women and men all over the world. We’d love to share them with you. Chances are that if you don’t mind the name, you won’t mind the taste.