Kenya, Embu County

Embu County is located in the foothills of Mount Kenya where the combination of high elevation, rich soil and a tradition of agricultural work yield great coffee. This is a beautiful and classic expression of Kenyan coffee. The cup has layers of complex grapefruit and kumquat citrus top notes that flow into stone fruit and ripe tomato tanginess with a clean body and finish. This coffee is grown by many small holder producers and submitted for processing at local cooperatives. Great coffees happen when communities practice tried and true processing methods consistently. This is an example of how the traditional washed processing methods produce clean, crisp, sweet and delightful coffees. 

There’s a lot of experimentation with processing methods happening in the specialty coffee world. Those experiments are exciting and push the limits of what we know as coffee, but it can be comforting to return to coffees that are classically good. Cheers to that!