Kenya | Gondo PB

Strawberry Jam | Danish Pastry | Plum

Region | Murang'a, Central Province
Altitude | 1900 MASL
Process | Washed
Variety | Batian, SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11

We have had some really top Kenyan peaberry collections here at Cloud Picker but we have not featured one for quite a while now. So it's great to at last get our hands on this hoard of luscious peaberries from the Gondo factory. This factory is situated in Murang'a, a county located right in the middle of three counties from which we have been sourcing for the last few years: Kiambu, Nyeri and Kirinyaga.

The Gondo factory is operated by the New Kiriti Farmers Cooperative Society, from which 727 members contribute to the factory. The FCS also manages the Kayu and Kirimahiga factories nearby. The average farm size of the contributing producers is half an acre and the average farm has 50 coffee trees.

The cherries processed here are hand-picked when ripe, delivered to the factory and pulped on the same day. They are then fermented to remove mucilage for 16-18 hours and afterwards washed and graded. They are dried under the sun before being hulled, sorted and bagged.

The peaberry, one small round seed growing in the coffee cherry rather than the normal two, has taken on some mythic qualities in the collective coffee imagination with a lot of extrapolation and speculative rubbish swirling around about the reasons for its supposed superior quality. From our experience, we can say that while we have rejected many peaberry samples over the years, we have also been lucky to feature some really delicious East African peaberries, particularly from Kenya, and they have often struck us as particularly bright, juicy and sweet. This delight from Gondo is no exception!

Enjoy!