Kenya | Karimikui AA

One of our favourite coffees down through the years, we're delighted to welcome the Karimikui back into the fold once again.

This is our fifth year to get in the Karimikui from Kirinyaga yet it's still a pleasant surprise when the name shows up as our favourite on the table after a blind cupping of samples each year. Last time, we picked out the AB over the AA - a differentiation in bean size rather than quality. This time the larger size AA came out on top.

The Karimikui Coffee Factory was established in 1966 and it serves around 600 smallholder farmers around the villages of Githureia, Gituba and Kiamugumo. It forms a part of the Rungeto Farmer's Cooperative Society, along with Kiangoi and Kii. Most of the smallholder farmers around Karimikui actually grow tea, rather than coffee, but this area has perfect conditions for coffee growing, with rich red, volcanic soil.

This coffee is fully washed, using the methods typical of a high quality Kenyan factory: the cherries are pulped and fermented under cover for up to 24 hours, washed in channels, then soaked for a further 16 hours before being dried on raised beds for 21 days. During processing, the coffee is sorted multiple times: the seeds are graded by density during pulping and washing, and unripes and defects are removed by hand.

We're in for another remarkable year with Karimikui!