Kenya Kirinyaga Kiangoi Peaberry
Kenya Kirinyaga Kiangoi Peaberry
Farm Description
Kiangoi is a "factory," a coffee mill in Kenya terminology, from the Kirinyaga growing district. It is a cooperative coffee, one of the processing stations of the Kibirigwi Farmers Cooperative Society located in Kerugoya. While we like estate coffees, oftentimes the qualities from cooperatives is superior. In a coop, each member is tending to only 200-500 trees on less than a hectare, as opposed to a huge estate that uses agribusiness growing methods. I think it shows in the cup too. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to visit Kiangoi, as it is the second time we have offered this specific coop coffee. I usually head in the direction of Nyeri to visit coops we have worked with more extensively, and Kirinyaga is the opposite way, to the East and away from the Aberdare zone. But we have had so many nice Kirinyaga lots lined up for 2010, I think I must spend more time there! The pictures with this review are SL-28 cultivar, the predominate type in Kirinyaga, which is a Bourbon hybrid from the 1930s developed by Scot Labs, and absolutely the best Kenya cultivar for cup quality. This is a nicely prepared Peaberry lot, as we have seen many mixed with quite a lot of flatbean (not that it matters if the cup is good!)
This coffee is part of our Farm Gate pricing program.Cupping Notes
The fragrance from the dry grounds has a sweet praline nut tone (City roast and City+ roast), as well as buttery caramel. My test roasts were mostly in the lighter range. I found the wet aromatic to be tea-like, malty, a little wheaty (like malt-o-meal), honeyed, with a hawthorn floral element. It's a very interesting flavor profile, not your fruitbowl Kenya, but a nicely structured, bracing and bright, articulate cup that is, in the final analysis, fairly straightforward. Stone fruits, firm peach and apricot (not overly ripe), juicy mouthfeel, a touch of hawthorn floral note (as found in the aromatics), a slightly drying tea-like quality to the finish. I find a chaffy-grainy flavor in my lightest roast, but I feel it is the roast level, not the coffee.
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Roast Recommendations
City+ roast maximizes the brightness of this coffee. If you want to tone it down a little, try Full City, before 2nd crack.Processing
Varietal
Grade & Appearance
Packaging
Comments
#1 another level
I will be posting some comments on different/darker roast levels in the next few days
#2 Roast levels
City + is really the sweet spot for this coffee. FC does tone down the brightness and has a distinct vanilla note, but the finish at C+ is long and syrupy with the stone fruit notes but also a candied watermelon. FC had really nice apple pie spice on the nose and while the cup was hot, with only a hint of the watermelon. Going into FC+ left a little of the spice note, but the front was already showing too much roastiness, steer away from getting into the second crack any deeper than one or two cracks in the drum. The roast at C+ cooled very nicely and I didn't get any chaff notes at this level. I think will be a real stellar coffee with a few more days rest.