Kenyan Coffee

Kenyan coffee has a reputation among specialty roasters out of all proportion to the country's volume, and the reason is a combination of high altitude, deep red volcanic soil on the slopes below Mount Kenya, particular varieties bred locally, and a meticulous processing method: the cherries are pulped, fermented, washed and washed again, which strips the fruit sugars and leaves the sharp, clean, blackcurrant-and-tomato acidity that people either love or find fierce. Most of it is grown by smallholders who deliver cherry to cooperative wet mills, or factories, whose output is graded by bean size, which is where the famous AA grade comes from. Estates and cooperatives around Nyeri and Kirinyaga run tours through the picking, pulping, drying tables and cupping, and Nairobi has a growing scene of cafés that finally serve good Kenyan coffee at home rather than exporting all the best of it.

What you actually see

• A cooperative wet mill - pulping, fermentation tanks and the raised drying tables.
• The plantations - coffee under shade on the red slopes below Mount Kenya.
• A cupping session - tasting the graded lots the way buyers do.
• Nairobi's coffee scene - the cafés now serving the country's best beans at home.

When to go

The main harvest runs roughly October to December, with a smaller early crop around June, and visiting during picking shows the whole process working; outside harvest you see the farms and the mills at rest. Estate tours run year-round, and mornings are best for cupping.

Honest expectations

Coffee farming here is smallholder work with thin and volatile returns, and the gap between what a grower earns and what the coffee sells for abroad is stark, which is worth knowing when choosing where to buy. Some Nairobi tours are set-piece experiences on show farms rather than working cooperatives. Outside harvest the mills are quiet, so time the visit if the process is what interests you.

Nearby

Mount Kenya and the Aberdares rise to the north and east; Nairobi is about two hours south.