Kiamugumo AA

This lot comes from the Kiamugumo factory situated in the community of Ngariama in the Nyangeni subregion of Kirinyaga County, on the slopes of Mount Kenya. In this area of Kenya, smallholders deliver freshly picked cherry directly to washing stations for processing.

After harvesting, local producers bring the ripe cherries to the factory on horses or motorcycles. The cherries are washed and depulped with water from the nearby Kii River. After washing, the coffee is dried on typical African raised beds for better air circulation, then brought to the Central Kenya Coffee Mill in Karatina Nyeri county for grading and sorting.

Kiamugumo is located in the buffer zone surrounding Mount Kenya National Park. Mount Kenya is also an extinct volcano and the second highest snow-capped peak in Africa (5,199 masl), after Kilimanjaro. The presence of this snowy mountain in Kirinyaga (the name of which actually means “White Mountain” in the native Kekuyu language) plays a fundamental role for the population and coffee of the surrounding areas. Its glaciers feed the Kii river which plays an important role in the processing of the coffee at the Kiamugumo washing station. These glacier-fed rivers also help cool the surrounding areas, giving the farms in the county an annual temperature between 13 and 25ºC—privileged temperatures compared to other coffee-growing areas in Africa.
At the dry mill in Karatina, the seed is separated from the parchment layer and run through screens to separate the different bean sizes. 'AA' is the name given to coffees that fall between '17' and '18' (17/64 to 18/64 of an inch in diameter). AA coffees usually show the clearest expression of flavor compared to smaller sizes like an AB.

In terms of flavor, this is a loud coffee and in the cup we taste big ripe fruit. You should experience obvious notes of apple juice and blackcurrant with lingering toffee in the finish.

Producer → Local Smallholder Farmers
Washing Station → Kiamugumo
Location → Ngariama, Kirinyaga, Kenya
Altitude → 1,600 masl
Variety → SL28, Batian & Ruiru 11
Process → Washed