A lovely Roaster’s Pick from East Africa to sip in the summer months
This month’s Roaster’s Pick at the Coffee Company could be a tipping point for the quality of your daily cup.
These beans come to us from smallholder farmers in Murang’a, a county in central Kenya. Murang’a sits about 60 miles northeast of Nairobi, nestled against the temperate western slopes of the Aberdare Mountain Range. The area was colonized by British missionaries who pushed inland, beyond the coastal territories already controlled by Portuguese colonization. Today, local farmers grow coffee alongside tea, macadamia, and avocado. Gatagua means “gathering” in Kikuyu, the local Bantu language. It’s fitting since there are nearly 900 members that make up the Gatagua Farmers Cooperative Society (GFCS). These aren’t large, industrialized farms. The average co-op member tends just two and a half acres of coffee trees.
The historical story of Kenya coffee is a strange one. Although Kenya is reasonably close to coffee’s homeland, Ethiopia, coffee didn’t come south to this country until 1893. Plants were brought all the way from Brazil that year. Coffee growing was reserved for European farmers until the time of the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule in the 1950s. That said, the growing conditions are nearly ideal, and only high-quality Arabica beans are cultivated in Kenya, so it’s generally considered to have some of the most delicious coffee around. Oddly, its annual production is decreasing, which makes me all the happier to have Gatagua coffee on hand!
The Gatagua coffee is a lighter roast that’s quite lovely for your summer drinking—hot or iced! The flavor is notable, too. A lot of people say they taste grapefruit in it. Maybe it’s grapefruit that’s glazed and caramelized with Muscovado brown sugar sprinkled on top? This coffee has hints of dried dates, good raisins, and dark, late-season honeys. We have it brewed in the urns at the Roadhouse and the Coffee Company.
If you swing by the Coffee Company, you can also experiment with any number of other brewing methods. I tried it last Sunday morning as an espresso—smooth, nutty, and chocolately. The syphon was great. Timmy at the Coffee Company calls it “super fruit,” and I’m inclined to agree. Do I taste cashews? Of all the brew methods I tried, the Chemex produced the nuttiest results—a little savory, like almond butter. Brewed in an Aeropress, it was even nuttier, but still light. This coffee is a great pairing with our Sour Cream Coffee Cake. If you’re considering a housewarming or new-baby gift, a coffee cake and a bag of these beans would be beautiful.
