Kii Light
Impressions: black currant, dark chocolate, mango
Roast degree: light-medium (2.5/5)
Country: Kenya
Region: Ngariama, Kirinyaga County, Mount Kenya
Farmers: Rungeto Farmers Cooperative Society
Processing station: Kii factory
Variety: SL28 and SL34 (C grade)
Process: Washed
It feels so good to have coffee from Vava back on the menu. Kenya is always a special treat, and this time we bring you something that is not seen that often in the specialty coffee: a C grade.
The AA and AB lots have bigger beans and are the most sought after, but tasting blindly a table full of Kenyans, this C grade was actually our favourite! (if you prefer darker roasted coffee and drink mostly espresso, check our the Kii Dark !)
One of the main things about the Kii washing station is consistency and quality. Year after year, this group of enthusiastic hard working farmers have created a reputation for themselves and the factory is one of the most highly sought after when it comes to quality lots.
It's not always easy to secure lots from Kii due to the high demand, but Vava has been working with them for the past 10 years and she usually gets a bunch of their top lots.
The Kii Factory, alongside the Rungeto Farmers Cooperative Society have been building their strong reputation for quality since 1953, and Vava strongly believes that the factory produces some of the best lots in all of Kirinyaga.
In 2009 Vava Angwenyi made the decision to create real change in the Kenyan Coffee industry. Between the challenges of poverty, corruption and fear, she saw smiles. She saw smallholder coffee farmers that wanted to change their lives but could not get their voices heard.
Vava Specialty Coffee is a social enterprise in Nairobi that seeks to cause positive social and economic disruption within the coffee industry and create sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers.
Kenyan coffees are quite famous in the specialty world and know for their intense notes. This coffee is no exception. (if you prefer espressos or drink your filters with milk, we highly suggest you check out the Kii Dark)
Most of the specialty world buys almost exclusively the ''big beans'' from Kenya: the AA and AB grade.
After cupping 10 lots blindly, most of them AB and AA, the clear winner was a C grade, which is a smaller green seed that usually fetches, for some reason, a much lower price.
This coffee is beautiful and straightforward, with loads of notes that we associate with Kenya often.
We get a lot of berries like blackberry and black currant, notes often associated with both Kenya and the SL varietals.
The blood orange acidity makes this coffee come alive, and the mango notes are super sweet and juicy.
In the finish, we had tons of chocolate, and because we are fancy like that, we think it tasted like chocolate truffles. Maybe it just taste like regular chocolate as well ;-)
| Method | Dose | Ratio | Time |
| Espresso | 18 g | 2.2:1 | 32-35 sec |
| Espresso with milk | 18g | 2:1 | 36-40 sec |
| Americano | 18 g | 2.3:1 | 30-35 sec |
|
V60/Origami |
23 g | 16.5:1 | 3:30-4:15 min |
|
Chemex & Batch Brew |
40-60 g | 16.5:1 | 5:00-5:30 min |
|
French Press |
18-25 g | 15.5:1 | 4:15 min steep time |
Farmers: Rungeto Farmers Cooperative Society
Exporter: Vava Coffee
Importer: Sustainable Harvest
Price paid by us to Sustainable Harvest for the landed coffee to our roastery: 14.00CAD/kg (including shipping, customs and financing costs)
FOB price: The price paid to Vava Coffee before it departed origin: 11CAD/kg
Farmgate price: around 120 Kenyan Chillings (KES) per kg of cherry.
One thing that is hard to navigate while buying Kenyan coffees are the export rules and the auction system.
The export license are limited and almost all coffee needs to pass by an auction. The AA and AB lots will always fetch more, and by default, the C grade, no matter how tasty, are always getting paid less.
It's still important to buy the C lots because otherwise, they will receive a penny on the dollar on the internal market.