Kenya

Mwendi Wega

The Mwendi Wega factory is located near the town of Kerugoya, in the Kirinyaga region, but only around 10 km from the border with Nyeri. Kirinyaga lies on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, in a tightly spaced group of regions famous for producing some of the highest quality coffee in Kenya. This coffee is grown by the small holder farmers of the Kerugoya Farmers Cooperative Society, most of whom grow coffee on plots of less than 0.5 hectares. The society was started recently, when a small group of farmers located just outside Kerugoya decided to pull their resources together and create their own small factory. The output of the factory is still quite small, but with a dedicated mill manager and ever increasing quality, the price fetched for the coffee is increasing. This lot consists of mainly SL28, along with a small amount of the disease resistant Batian and Ruiru 11 varieties. It is fermented using the traditional Kenyan double soaked process, a variant on the washed process which is popular in Kenya. This adds to the intensity of acidity and body that we so value in Kenyan coffee, here presenting itself as vivid notes of ripe blackcurrant, alongside a vibrant tropical fruit acidity.