Kii AA+ - Kenya

Region – Ngariama Kirinyaga County
Quality - AA+ microlot
Altitude – 1600-1900 MASL
Process – Washed
Varietal – SL28, SL34
Cooperative - Rungeto Farmers Cooperative Society
Soil – Red volcanic
Rainfall – Annual average of 1000 – 14000 mm
Harvest – 2016/7
Drying – Dried on raised beds for 2-3 weeks

This Kenyan coffee is unlike most Kenyans. Yes - it does have notes of blackcurrant but not buckets loads like the majority of their coffees. It's bright, high-toned with a crisp acidity, red berries, medium body, soft with tropical fruits, milk chocolate finish, balanced & very complex. It's a coffee that has really caught our attention! Safe to say we really love this one!  

FACTORY DETAILS

Kii factory was established in 1996 and has grown over the years to collect cherries from about 1,200 farmers. Together with Karimikui and Kiangoi mills, they form the Rungeto Farmers Cooperative Society, which is made up of 3,000 active members. Rungeto Society was established in 1953 and has built a strong reputation for itself ever since. This society has an annual production of 500,000 kgs of green coffee and an estimated area under coffee of 535 hectares. Rungeto represents 9% of all smallholder production in Kirinyaga. The high-yield factories produce coffees of outstanding quality, grown in ideal growing circumstances on the foot of Mount Kenya.

In total, Rungeto has about 3500 farmers growing their coffee on small plots of land there and delivering their cherries to the three mills. Nowadays, an estimated 55% of all coffee production in Kenya comes from smallholder farms. Farmers take ripe cherries to be processed in centralized wet mills, where they are pulped, fermented, washed and sun dried on elevated tables. Coffee is then delivered to a dry mill. The parchement coffee produced by Kii factory, for example, is further processed by the Sasini dry mill.