DISCOVERY

The Oreti Estate

This month’s subscription is our final release of the season from Kenya. This origin is one that lies close to our hearts; many of us hold on to memories of Kenyan coffees as some of the highlights of our coffee lives.

Kenya is however rather difficult to work in as a coffee buyer. Four large companies control about 90% of the coffee that leaves the country, often making it difficult to support innovation and foster direct connections. This imperfect system still leads to very high quality export lots, but often at the expense of true traceability and consistency. The only way to secure a long term supply of consistently excellent coffee from Kenya is through partnerships built on trust.

This month, you can enjoy a washed lot from Boyce’s Oreti estate, crisp and fresh with notes of ripe berries, and a natural lot of Bourbon, grown on some of the oldest trees in Kenya, deep and rich with heavy stewed fruit notes.

Kenya

Kenya is rather difficult to work in as a coffee buyer. Four large companies control about 90% of the coffee that leaves the country, often making it difficult to support innovation and foster direct connections. This imperfect system still leads to very high quality export lots, but often at the expense of true traceability and consistency. The sustained low market price for coffee over the past 5 years or so has led to many small farmers ceasing to work with coffee, moving instead to other crops such as tea, or even the legal narcotic Khat. Those who remain have attempted to reduce their cost of production, grafting high yielding and disease resistant Batian and Ruiru 11 shoots onto their SL varietal root stock. All of this leads to reduced supply of the very high quality coffee we are used to seeing from Kenya, which is a huge loss for the large milling and export companies who control the stream of coffee out of the country. Therefore, they move into purchasing lower quality, pushing instead for quantity, and move into newer areas to the north and west, unproven ground in terms of high end lots.

The only way to secure a long term supply of consistently excellent coffee from Kenya is through partnerships built on trust. Many of our colleagues do this with single stations or cooperatives, and have seen excellent results. Our partners in Kenya work through several different modes of production.

the Chania Estate

Boyce Harries

In January of 2022, we visited Boyce Harries at his Chania Estate for the second time. Here, late and inadequate rains had led to a big drop in production for the main crop, which had finished days before we arrived. At the slightly higher altitude Oreti Estate, just a short drive away, the later harvest had lined up much better with the rains, leading to juicy sweet cherries, with enough sugary mucilage to create incredible complexity and depth during fermentation.

Boyce’s work in converting his farming towards a more holistic, soil health based approach was inspiring, and we believe the results can be tasted. We walked through lush coffee fields, separated by an ample leguminous cover crop, grown under the shade of beautiful gravilea and macadamia trees. It was here that we witnessed the difficulty of growing traditional SL varietals. Boyce grows a mix of varietals across separate plots, and the high yield and vigour of especially the Ruiru 11 trees was clear to see. SL varietals are incredibly susceptible to fungal diseases like coffee leaf rust, and therefore require copious amounts of anti-fungal and herbicidal sprays in order to survive, alongside much higher levels of chemical fertiliser than Ruiru and Batian. The cost of production and environmental impact of growing the SL varietals is therefore far higher than we knew, and something we’ll be taking into account in our buying and pricing decisions this season. Boyce’s innovation continues in his work in traceability and micro-lot creation; small scale experimentation with varietal separation and alternative fermentations was an eye-opening experience to taste. A lot of pure Ruiru, processed as a natural, was a highlight.

Washed SL28

This lot was grown on the Oreti Estate, harvested from SL28 trees in January 2022. This is the archetypal lot from Boyce’s farms, the strongest washed Kenya character is found here, helped along by the excellent growing conditions this year. Here, this comes across as black tea and blackberry, fresh, sweet and clean.

Natural Bourbon

The trees that this lot was picked from are some of the oldest in Kenya. French missionaries originally brought Bourbon to Kenya in the late 1800s, well before Scott Laboratories released their famed SL varietals. The Bourbon trees at Oreti were already there when the Harries family purchased the land in 1946, so they are not sure exactly how old they are. Most Bourbon plantations were replaced during the early 1900’s, as the SL varietals became more and more popular, but the Harries have kept theirs, both at Chania and Oreti. This lot, processed using a careful natural method, showcases the deep and rich character of Bourbon, with stewed berry and dried fruit notes alongside a dark chocolate finish.

HOW TO BREW

Victor's thoughts

For Kenyan coffees, we often use a shorter contact time, allowing the acidity to shine through. With this month’s lots from Oreti, the aim is a quick brew time, with a single aggressive pour after the bloom. This leads to a juicy and bright cup, showcasing the combined characteristics of Kenyan terroir, processing and varietals.

brew guide

Oreti

DATA:

14 grams of coffee, ground finer than normal
230 grams of water 40ppm 94C
CAFEC Abaca filters

METHOD:

Dose the coffee into the V60 and shake to even.

0:00

Add 60g of water.

0:45

Pour in a circular motion up to 230g. This pour should be fast, taking between 20 and 30 seconds.

Don’t swirl or stir the coffee during the bloom or after the last pour.

DISCOVERY

Sourcing in Kenya

Both of these coffees are interesting examples of alternative methods of sourcing in Kenya. Boyce’s single farm model allows him a great deal of extra freedom outside the traditional cooperative system, with single varietal and alternative process lots. Boyce’s degree of control over the entire process will also increase should he implement his plan to open his own dry mill in the coming years. Exporting small microlots through a system designed for large cooperative lots is difficult, and leads to a great deal of extra work and costs from Boyce’s side. His continued perseverance and determination shows in both of this month’s coffees, and we hope you enjoy them.