Origin Spotlight: Kenya
From the Coffee Sourcing Team
By Blue Bottle Coffee Sourcing and Relationship Manager Shaun Puklavetz
This marks the first in an occasional series on the origin countries from which we source our coffees.
Shaun Puklavetz, Blue Bottle’s Coffee Sourcing and Relationship Manager, shares his thoughts on Kenya, the country behind some of our most exciting single origins.
In most of the world, we work with the same producers every year. The complexities of the auction system make this difficult in Kenya. Prior to harvest, we do our best to collaborate with local marketers to get coffees from our favorite factories, but in many ways, we’re starting from scratch each year. That means the number of samples when building our Kenya lots is unparalleled, often well into the hundreds.
Shaun Puklavetz (Coffee Sourcing and Relationship Manager) and Benjamin Brewer (Director of Quality) traveled to Kenya in late January, just as the buying season was ramping up. Our visit started with a trip upcountry, to tour the Central Kenyan Coffee Mill, and visit producers in the central growing areas. After returning to Nairobi, we got to work, spending four days screening lots with the famed C. Dormans Coffee Company, and our partners at Louis Dreyfus Kenya.
Our selections this year come from Kirinyaga and Kiambu Counties. Some of these coffees will be featured on our Single Origin menu, and a few will be used to provide dimension to this year’s Winter Blooms Blend. The coffees include a few names that may be familiar to long time Blue Bottle customers, as well as some incredible coffees from producers we’re just discovering.
Kirinyaga County’s coffee growing regions sit just south of Mount Kenya National Park, at around 1800 meters. High elevations and the local climate promote slow maturation, which allows the SL cultivars to realize their full potential. This year’s selections come from Kirinyaga including coffees from Kaguyu, Kamwangi, Kariaini, and Guama factories. These are classic Kenyas, juicy and complex, laden with blackberry-like sweetness, complex acidity, and syrupy quality that we look forward to all year.
A few hours south, butting up against (and slowly being enveloped by) Nairobi, Kiambu County is a stark departure from Kirinyaga. The city is a much more present force here, making it difficult to escape a broader trend in Kenya (and the rest of the producing world), wherein farming is no longer appealing, and younger generations prefer to pursue a life in the city.
The rapidly urbanizing area is still producing some of the world’s greatest coffees. This year, we selected coffees from Karinga and Handege factories. Karinga’s coffee spoke to us for its complex citric and tropical acidity. Handege, a factory we’ve loved since it first appeared on our menu in 2017, is a bit of a standout. The coffee’s highly fruited qualities are heightened by a complex, floral aroma, making it reminiscent of our favorite lots from Ethiopia. While we don’t exactly know where this quality comes from, we pick it out every year, and always have Handege high on our list when we begin searching for our Kenyas for the year.