June 2022 - Kenya AA - Ndaro-Ini (Place of Rest)

June 2022’s Coffee Origin - Kenya AA - Ndaro-Ini

Empowering the Community
From the smallholder farmers to the exporter this month's coffee is all about community empowerment.  We don't usually talk much about exporters when we describe our coffees, but this story seemed worth telling. This origin was exported by Vava Specialty Coffee, a social enterprise created by Vava Angwenyi in 2009. Vava's aim was to create meaningful prospects and sustainable livelihoods for the farmers she worked with. To date Vava has worked with over 30000 smallholder farmers and impacted the lives of over 100000. Vava has been repeatedly recognized for its specialty coffees as well as its social impact, especially for women in the communities they work with.

About the Cooperative
As you may have noticed, coffee is often produced by smallholder farmers or groups of farmers forming Coops.  Cooperatives in turn help to build, maintain and improve the communities they serve far beyond the act of coffee production. Ndaro-Ini is another example of a Coop improving not only the quality of the coffee, but the lives of the farmers who produce it. 

Ndaro-Ini was formed in 1984 by a group of farmers who were tired of travelling to deliver their cherries to distant factories. To increase their control and improve their community they built a factory and named it Ndaro-Ini (meaning "Place of Rest" in Kikuyu, a local Tribal Language).  Ndaro-Ini is now one of three factories operated by the Gikanda Farmers Cooperative Society. This Coop invests in education, infrastructure and community initiatives that benefit its members and their families.

 

KENYA AA - NDARO INI 

Region: Karatina, Nyeri County
Varietals: SL28 and SL34
Growing Elevation: 5500+ feet
Process: Fully Washed and Sun Dried
Flavour Profile and Notes: GO CUP YOURSELF and find out!


About The Coffee Production Process
Contributing farmers handpick ripe coffee cherries and deliver them to the Ndaro-ini Factory.  Quality control begins imediately with the factory's Cherry Clerk visually sorting and floating the submissions, accepting only dense, ripe cherries. The best cherries are then pulped and fermented for 12 to 16 hours before being washed in clean water and graded.  The coffee beans are then sun dry on raised beds with workers raking the parchment for even drying.  The drying process can take between 14 to 21 days and produces consistent moisture levels across the finished product. The process is time and labour intensive, but as always we ask; how does it taste?


Roaster’s Notes:

By popular demand, this is a medium roast. This origin came to us from an importer that supplies some of our rarer or harder to come by coffees, as such we have high expectations. We've tried this offering at every roast level imaginable and somewhere between a light and medium roast is the sweet spot (depending on who you ask at the shop).  Roasting this coffee uses all of your senses as it is surprisingly quiet, but roasts along a predictable curve. It's colour progression is quit well timed if you've set the heat correctly and this was as smooth a roast as they come. 

Cupping-wise, look for Raspberry notes with a Floral …wait a minute, if you want cupping notes Go Cup Yourself!

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Once you have finished Cupping, click on the “EXPERT TASTED” tab for our tasting notes. Can’t wait to compare notes.

As always, we'd love to hear from you. Better yet, tell the world what you think. If you've been enjoying the Go Cup Yourself experience, please take a moment to review us on FacebookGoogleYelp, Reddit, a bathroom stall door or anywhere you get your reviews.

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