Gichatha-ini - Washed AB SL28/34 - Nyeri, Kenya

The Basics:

Producer: Washing Station
Location: Nyeri, Kenya
Variety: SL-28 & 34
Process: Washed AB
Harvest: 2025
Importer: Falcon Coffees

Purchase Price: $9.20/pound

Tasting Notes: Juicy plum flavors and rose aromatics. Candy sweetness like a purple Tootsiepop, with a finish like purple grape.

Gichatha-ini represents the exceptional quality of Nyeri, a region boasting plentiful rainfall, volcanic soil, and cool evenings. The cup offers juicy plum flavors and rose aromatics, candy Tootsipop sweetness, and a finish like purple grape.

Gichathaini is one of three washing stations owned and operated by the Gikanda Farmers Cooperative Society on the Eastern side of Mt. Kenya. Known for its commitment to conservation, the station uses gravity-fed channels to draw water from the nearby Ragati river for coffee fermentation and washing. The coffee is then dried in the sun on raised beds and prepared for auction in Nairobi.

About Kenya: Great Kenyan coffee is as bold in flavor as coffee gets without introducing modern processing techniques. Producers have small farms where they grow subsistence crops and a few coffee trees, almost exclusively of the SL28/34 varietal. The best Kenyan coffees have strong citric and malic acidity with juicy flavors like raisin and ripe berries, the result of nutrient rich volcanic soil and the famous SL28/34 varietal.

About Washed Process: The washed process is the standard method of preparing coffee before roasting. It results in high-clarity, delicate flavors. The process begins with mechanically de-pulping the coffee cherry, followed by repeated washing with clean water to ensure the complete removal of the fruit mucilage. The coffee is then fermented for a short period of time to remove the parchment layer, and then dried in the a single layer either in the sun or in shade for several days.