Flavors - Pineapple, spices, heavy body
Process - Washed
Roast Level - Medium
Varietal - SL28 & 34 Ruiru11, Batian
Altitude - 1600m - 1700m
Notes - This coffee is suitable for all brew methods. Roasted medium.
About
The vast majority of the coffee bought and sold in Kenya is traded through the national auction system, where marketing agents enter cooperatives' and estates’ coffee and traders come to bid.
The main buyers from this auction system are large multinationals, who then offer the lots to importers and roasters. Unfortunately, this has been the only way to purchase Kenyan coffee for a long time and we’ve become frustrated with the lack of transparency, poor service and price volatility.
In the last few years we have started buying directly from the auction using a local Kenyan company, who bid on the coffee on our behalf, after we have cupped through auction samples filtered by a local cupper.
This was not only a conscious decision to support local, Kenyan businesses, but also to make the supply chain more efficient and save money, in order to pass on those savings to roasters.
We hope that these savings help increase the presence of Kenyan coffees on roasters’ menus. This is intended to be the first part of a plan to work on the transparency limitations in Kenya and ultimately the goal is to avoid using the auction system at all, by working directly with farmers’ associations, cooperatives and small estates, and not through a marketing agent.
The Nduma factory is located in Nyeri on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, and they are part of the Rumukia Farmers Coop Society.
Nduma factory is mainly run by the local group called Kikuyu, and they deliver cherries regularly to the factory during the months of November, December and January, there are around 1200 smallholder farmers that contribute to the yearly production.
The Factory is built right next to the Tana River and the area were the coffee is grown is characterised by rich Volcanic sandy soil and by the abundant vegetation that surround the whole valley.
Nduma in Kikuyu means "Darkness" and it has been chosen because in ancient time the area was covered with thick forest were barely any light could penetrate making the land very hard to pass through.
The land is rich in nutrients therefore the farmers are growing many other crops alongside coffees, that made possible for the locals to differentiate and have multiple crops throughout the year, boosting their total household income and rendering the community independent and economically stable.