Filter: Kenya Kirinyaga Ngugu-ini PB

The Ngungu-ini Factory is part of the Kibirigwi Farmers’ Cooperative Society, which includes eight other factories in the region. The Ngugu-in factory was founded in 1958. Today it draws coffee from 1,200 smallholders from Kirinyaga County at the foothills of Mount Kenya. In Kirinyaga, the hills are lush with deep red volcanic soil, rich in organic matter. At altitudes ranging from 1,600 to 1,800masl, the SL-34, SL-28, and Ruiru 11 coffee varieties that grow here develop into vibrant, fruit-forward coffees.

Kenyan coffee is graded by screen size. The grades range from E (Elephant Bean), PB (peaberry), AA, AB, C, and other subsequent lower grades. This lot is a highly sought-after Kenya PB, where only a single coffee bean grows inside a cherry instead of the typical twin beans. Because only one bean matures, the peaberry usually develops with more sugars and nutrients than twin beans that share a cherry. That’s also why peaberries are rounder and denser than most coffee beans.

The coffee was primarily grown by smallholders – with an average of 200 trees each - who handpicked ripe cherries in the morning and delivered them to the Ngugu-ini cooperative factory (wet mill). The coffee cherries were subsequently disc pulped between two rotating abrasive slabs with the help of clean water, then fully fermented overnight.

The wet mill manager inspected the fermented beans for optimal textures of broken-down fruit mucilage and parchment coating before they were thoroughly washed. After pouring the washed beans down a sloped tiled channel, the beans were pushed repeatedly by wooden shunts back to the top to separate lighter and heavier beans. This ensured that only the heavier, denser, higher-quality beans made it into this micro-lot.