Kenya Gura AA

Country: Kenya
Region: Othaya, Nyeri County
Varietal: SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1,752 MASL
Cupping Notes: Tart Cherry, Lemon, Black Tea

Description: The Gura Factory is located on the banks of the Gura River, which is said to be the fastest river in all of Africa. It’s one of 19 factories/washing stations under the Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society OFCS), which was registered in 1956. They provide seedlings, dry milling, and farm provisions to all of its factories. Gura supports nearly 500 smallholder farmers, and all coffee produced by the 15,000 growers belonging to OFCS is certified Fairtrade. The coffee contributing to this lot benefits from fertile red volcanic soils that are rich in phosphorus, and the region is famous for high quality coffee and tea. Once coffee is delivered to Gura wet mill, it will be pulped, fermented, and then washed clean of mucilage. The station is able to utilize the Gura River for washing and cleaning coffee. Parchment coffee is then delivered to raised beds for slow drying, taking 14-21 days. The station manager only allows coffee to dry for maximum of 4 hours per day, to protect from harsh sunlight. At this point, coffee is then trucked to Nairobi where it will be dry milled and prepared for export. Once milled is also when grading takes place, including the grading of this AA. The Kenyan Grading System is (mostly) used to sort between different sizes of green coffees, not to distinguish between qualities. AA denotes that the coffees are screen sizes 17-18, measured in 64th of an inch