Something You Need To Know Kenya Coffee
Coffee produced in Kenya has been popular with many in the boutique coffee world, but what is the difference between coffee in Kenya? How do coffee treatment and unique varieties affect the flavor we drink? Why is it increasingly easy for buyers of raw beans to trade directly with farmers?
Flavor Characteristics Of Kenyan Coffee
Kenyan coffee flavors are complex and full of fruit flavor, bright acid, full taste, and unique aroma. The most well-known flavor features make many people love it.
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There are many coffee producing areas and coffee varieties in Kenya. High altitude, stable rainfall, and good soil quality in the Kenyan producing area. There are several major producing areas, namely: Central Kenya (Mountains Kenya and Aberdare), Western (Kisii, Nyanza, and Bungoma), East African Rift Valley (Nakuru and Kericho), Eastern (Machakos, Embu, and Meru), and Coastal (Taita Hills) These regions have unique climates and growing conditions for coffee, with subdivisions of micro-producing areas, all of which create fine differences in coffee flavours.
In addition, Kenya has a wide variety of coffee varieties, notably SL28 and SL34, which are less common in other coffee-producing countries and produce a complex aroma of coffee grown in high altitude regions. In addition, you may have heard of the K7 variety, which is grown at lower altitudes and is more drought tolerant because of its deep roots. In addition, two varieties, Batian and R11, were bred in laboratories to combat coffee-related diseases.
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In addition to specific regions and varieties, you may have heard about the way Kenyan coffee is graded, possibly according to the size, shape, and quality of the beans, AA, AB, PB, C, E, and TT, which all have meanings, AA/AB/C for different sizes of coffee beans and PB for round beans (That is, a coffee fruit has only one seed), E stands for great coffee beans (elephant beans) , TT for low density coffee beans (poor quality).
Grading coffee beans in this way helps ensure the consistency of coffee, making the entire bag of coffee the same flavor.
Consistency Achieved By Teamwork
There are more than 700,000 coffee producers in Kenya, who prefer to do it all by hand, from picking coffee fruits, drying, and handling to grading, with most farms planting about 1,320 coffee trees per hectare.
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Kenyan coffee is harvested twice a year, for the first time in about 1, sometimes until July; The second is in October ~ December, sometimes until January of the following year. The exact start and end of the harvest period depend on the production area, the weather of the year, and the elevation of the farm. Because they harvest twice a year, producers are very busy throughout the year.
Most full-time coffee growers in Kenya are family businesses, and you may have heard locals call themselves "coffee kids," coffee is their parents, and other producers are their brothers and sisters. Most Kenyan farmers work in cooperatives, which improves the consistency of coffee quality.
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Kenya Coffee Trading Model
Unlike many producing countries in the Americas and Asia, where local governments control a certain amount of the coffee trade, most coffee beans are sold at central auctions under the supervision of the government-run Kenya Coffee Agency.
These are usually farmer-friendly laws, but if farmers want to sell coffee beans independently, they can be "excluded" from the supply chain, while back-end transport and trade administration operations are carried out by buyers and sellers themselves.
Some producers would argue that there is no beautiful purchase price in the system as if there were too many players in the supply chain and that farmers do not fully trust backend people to have a unique selling point that really expresses their coffee to buyers, even suspecting that middlemen are falsely reporting the actual purchase price.
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Kenyan producers have a great passion for coffee. After all, they are the children of coffee. But the aforementioned low pay and mismanagement may turn enthusiasm into disappointment.
In recent years, there have been many negative voices about central auctions, which have loosened government restrictions on direct trade, making it easier for farmers to sell and export coffee they produce directly. The next challenge is to help farmers get better purchase prices and improve the transparency of supply chains.
Coping With The Rapidly Changing Coffee Industry
Local teams indicated that they were developing a voluntary coffee organization, operating through pledges and that once funds were available, they could respond to these new trends in the Kenyan coffee trade with a view to promoting greater transparency in supply chains. They hoped that such transparency would exist not only in the hands of consumers but also farmers.
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Farmers sometimes do not know what processed coffee is like, so they can use the central auction coffee cup measurement mechanism to understand their coffee condition and who bought it.
In the case of auctions, farmers know that their coffee cup scores are 93, but they don't know why they get the score, which happens very often, and farmers who represent them can't wait to tell their partners good news.
Farmers have the right to know this information, to help them produce better quality coffee, and to respond well is an affirmation of their hard work.
In addition, the establishment of the aforementioned coffee institutions can help farmers to understand their coffee conditions from agronomy, roasting, and cup testing, which will allow farmers to understand the value of their coffee from a market perspective and thus obtain a more reasonable purchase price.
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In addition, institutions can provide training for young coffee practitioners in roles such as baristas, cup surveyors, bean bakers, farmers, etc. The institutions hope that new generations will see a complete coffee supply chain and understand that there is a future for them to stay in the coffee industry, all of which are related to improving supply chain transparency.
Each coffee-producing region is unique, with different soils, climates, varieties, production methods, and treatments that create the uniqueness of Kenyan coffee and the complexity of its flavor, and each country has its own challenges, whether it be infrastructure, related policies, or regulations, pests or diseases, etc.
Seeing that coffee practitioners in Kenya are willing to improve supply chain transparency is a good thing. Understanding the appearance of quality coffee helps farmers to identify themselves with the coffee they produce, and we should not neglect to allow farmers to see transparent supply chains.
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