Kenyan coffee exemplifies a number of trends in the emerging specialty coffee market, making it the perfect subject of the Compass Coffee Review’s maiden voyage. Recent years have seen coffee roasters providing more and more information to their customers in an effort to differentiate their product. Rather than merely buying coffee from a particular country, consumers are beginning to enjoy the luxury of choosing from a palette of different farms, processing techniques and cultivars. This is both a blessing, when it assists the consumer to find the coffee of their dreams, and a burden, when unrealistic expectations are created. One of my aims in starting Compass is to assist consumers to navigate through a market of increasing product differentiation.
Another emerging trend in Australia’s espresso-dominated specialty coffee world is the re-emergence of brewed coffee methods such as french press and filter. The classic Kenyan cup is the ideal entrée into these brewing methods. For this review, four Kenyan coffees were purchased pseudonymously from Sydney based roasters and subjected to a a blind evaluation for brewed coffee by a panel of three.
The Classic Cup
In 1935, William Ukers wrote that ‘Kenyans are often blended with the better quality coffees of Central America.’1 Today, the unique raspberry, blackcurrant and winey flavours of classic Kenyan coffee, together with its luscious mouthfeel, see it highly rated amongst the best in the world by brewed coffee drinkers and make it a great entrée to brewed coffee. Surprisingly, the recommended coffees from this instalment were citrus driven. Coffee #08121 displayed the classic Kenyan cup profile, but, was bitter, earthy and left a dry finish – perhaps it was delivered stale or over roasted. For this reason, the reviewers could not recommend this coffee and it will remain unidentified. Coffee Alchemy’s Kenya Gethumbwini was a complex grapefruit bombshell with hints of the classic raspberry and wood, earning a Very Good rating.
The Auction System
Kenya’s coffee industry has been shaped by its government and peak bodies since the passage of the Coffee Act in 1933, under which separate lots of coffee are auctioned under the supervision of the Coffee Board of Kenya.2 Coffee is graded based on size and density for convenience, but ultimately purchased based on cup quality.3 It is not uncommon to see coffee advertised in Australia as ‘Kenya AA Grade,’ which may create the impression that it is the best quality Kenyan coffee as opposed to merely containing beans above 7.2 mm in screen size.4 The numbers support the idea that quality is rewarded on the market: Kenya AA lots sold through the Nairobi auction garnered an average price of approximately $1.94 USD per pound over the last year.5 For reference, Brazil naturals traded through the New York exchange fetched an average of approximately $1.25 USD per pound in 2008.6 The success of the Kenyan auction system was the inspiration behind the Cup of Excellence competition.7 In the past few years, the Kenyan government has begun to allow direct sales of Kenyan coffee to overseas buyers, bypassing the auction system.8 We can only hope that buyers of green coffee for the Australian market take this opportunity to lock down some spectacular coffee, as opposed to letting shrewd overseas buyers taking all of the best.
SL-28
Arabica coffee has long been marketed as the creme-de-la-creme in Australia, but only recently has the specialty coffee community started to pay attention to the influence of the particular arabica cultivar. The jewel in Kenya’s crown is a varietal known as SL-28, widely believed to be responsible for the classic Kenyan cup profile.9 The development of the cultivar in the 1950s by Scott Laboratories could well be an important factor in lifting the profile of Kenyan coffee since Ukers’ time. Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture Coffee notes that SL-28 planted on El Salvador’s Finca Kilimanjaro could well be confused with a Kenyan coffee, though he notes that Finca Kilimanjaro’s verdant volcanic soils may also play a part.
Ruiru 11 and Fungicides
The chink in SL-28’s armour is its susceptibility to coffee berry disease (CBD).10 The varietal Ruiru 11 was developed in the 1980s as a disease-resistant alternative to the SL varietals, but is reputed to produce an inferior cup.11 In a win for quality over convenience, it appears that farmers have opted for fungicides over Ruiru 11. In 2005, Ruiru 11 accounted for just 3% of Kenya’s crop.12 The copper (I) based Copper Nordox is the weapon of choice against CBD13 and was recently listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute for use in certified organic production.14 Wine buffs may be interested to learn that the copper (II) based Bordeaux mixture is the most commonly used spray to control mildew in vineyards and is sometimes ‘applied with such enthusiasm that some vineyards actually turn blue towards the end of summer.’15
Against this background it was surprising to learn that the Source Espresso’s Kenya Kitamaiyu was grown without any spraying at all. Nonetheless, it stole the show, with tea at the beginning giving way to a distinct lemon flavour and a sparkling acidity as the cup cooled. Reviewers rated this coffee Very Good to Excellent.
Featured Reviews
Kenya Kitamaiyu Estate from The Source Espresso
Kenya Gethumbwini from Coffee Alchemy
Thanks To
Nim Namasi of The Maling Room (reviewer)
Simon James of Michel’s Espresso (reviewer)
Peter Lynagh, formerly of Terroir Coffee
Peter Giuliano of Counter Culture Coffee
Endnotes
1. William H. Ukers, All About Coffee, 2nd Edition (1935), page 207
2. Coffee Board of Kenya, Historical Perspective
3. Embassy of the Republic of Kenya to Japan, Kenya Coffee Fact
4. Coffee Board of Kenya, Coffee Grades
5. Statistics available from the Kenya Coffee Traders Association as a pdf download; see also Fair Share Foundation,Top Kenya coffee earns $600 per bag in direct sales for reports of a single lot of AB coffee fetching $8.65 USD per pound
6. Statistics available from the International Coffee Organisation
7. Intelligentsia Coffee, Geoff Watts on Kenya Costs and Pricing
8. Embassy of the Republic of Kenya to Japan, Coffee Marketing and Promotion; see also Alan Odhiambo, Coffee Board Bets on Online Trade to Boost Sales, Business Daily (Nairobi), 5 May 2008, available online here at allAfrica.com, for reports that the Coffee Board of Kenya is considering opening up a ‘third window’ for online sales of coffee; see also Fair Share Foundation,Top Kenya coffee earns $600 per bag in direct sales
9. George Howell, The Long Road to Quality Coffee
10. George Howell, The Long Road to Quality Coffee
11. International Coffee Organisation, Botanical Aspects; George Howell, The Long Road to Quality Coffee
12. Sweet Marias, Tiny Joy: a home coffee roasting newsletter, June to August 2005, available as a pdf download
13. Royal Coffee, Royal News June 2005, available as a pdf download
14. Nordox AS, Certification
15. James Halliday and Hugh Johnson, The Art And Science of Wine, (2006), page 215
Print Version
The print version of this article was syndicated into issue 1 of BeanScene Magazine.
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Hi Ross,
Thanks for the comments and thanks for putting in the hard yards to keep all of the comps running!
Funny that you mention SL-28 and Mountain Top; Nim went to visit Mountain Top immediately after the coffee championships weekend. Unfortunately, I had already booked flights and it was far too expensive to change them to join him, so I asked him to find out about SL-28 at Mountain Top. Apparently they are not using SL-28; it’s mainly K7 and I think that Nim might have said that they are either growing Mundo Novo or experimenting with Mundo Novo. From memory, most of the Aussie farms planted after consulting with the NSW department of agriculture to determine what plants were suitable. Their list includes SL-34, which is also highly regarded and sometimes planted with SL-28, but not SL-28. I’ll definitely do an article on Australian coffee at some stage, at which point I’ll sort all of that out.
It would be really cool to have a wall-sized coffee varietal family tree, complete with characteristics. The Australian agricultural engineer Tony Marsh recently did a lot of work on varietals in Aceh, where he had access to experimental beds of a whole bunch of different varietals planted next to each other and growing in the same conditions. I got a chance to cup five varietals with two different processing methods head to head and there actually ended up being a surprisingly large points spread on my score sheet. I doubt that we’re going to see too many people shopping for coffee based on varietal any time soon, but I think that it’s one of the many facets of coffee production about which coffee nutters like us would benefit from knowing at least a little bit.
Cheers,
Luca
Hi Luca,
enjoyed the article and good research. Nice to see someone trumpeting kenyan coffees. Coincidentally, I believe it is the SL-28 that Mountain Top have used, a wise choice that’s produced some results. I look forward to the review of Mountain Top V Kenya maybe ?
Well done on the Cup Tasting
See you soon.
Ross