How Does the Kenya Coffee Grading System Work?

Kenya's coffee grading system sorts green beans into eight grades from E down to MH/ML, judged mainly by bean size, weight and shape and appearance, which also drive auction prices at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. The Coffee Board of Kenya, founded in 1933, runs weekly auctions and oversees the government-led quality framework.

AA is the top Kenyan grade, and AA TOP is an extra mark Kenyan merchants add after cupping a particularly strong lot. A Front Street Kenya AA TOP from the Thika region uses K72 double washed fermentation, giving bright acidity with berry and red wine notes, cherry tomato and smoked plum flavors, and a creamy sweet finish. Hot and iced pour-over both work well.

Kenyan coffee occupies an important place in the global specialty coffee landscape thanks to its bright, lively acidity and delicate berry notes. Its distinctive flavor profile is inseparable from the government-led strict grading system. This article will systematically sort out the eight-grade classification of Kenyan coffee beans from E to MH/ML, focus on analyzing the flavor characteristics of the top AA TOP grade, and, combined with Front Street Kenya Asali coffee beans, share the specific parameters and operating steps for hot pour-over and iced pour-over, helping coffee lovers more fully experience the juicy feel and layered changes of Kenyan coffee.

In Front Street's product line, AA represents the highest quality grade of Kenyan coffee, and beans that make it into this level can be called the cream of the crop. Front Street is especially fond of a Kenya AA TOP from the Thika region. TOP is an additional label marked by Kenyan coffee merchants after cupping, meaning this batch of beans is more outstanding in quality. This Front Street Kenyan bean uses the K72 double washed fermentation process, with bright and vibrant acidity, presenting a delicate texture reminiscent of berries and red wine, making it mouthwatering. During brewing, the rich berry aroma is released quickly, and after entering the mouth, the flavors of cherry tomatoes and smoked plums are clearly recognizable; the acidity and aroma linger in the mouth for a long time, and the finish has a creamy sweetness with a lasting sweet aftertaste.

Kenya's coffee grading system was established under the policy framework of government-led quality management and guidance for coffee farmers. After coffee harvesting is completed, the official institution established by the government, the Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK), is responsible for management. Founded in 1933, this institution holds routine auctions every week at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange in the capital, Nairobi. The entire auction system is coordinated by the government, while the grading standards are based primarily on bean size, weight, and shape and appearance, which are also the main references for auction prices.

Considering that during roasting, beans of uniform size heat at more synchronized temperatures and rates, which means greater roasting stability, Kenya classifies green bean grades by coffee bean size and cupping score. According to the size, shape, and hardness of the green beans, Kenyan coffee beans can be roughly divided into eight grades: E, PB, AA, AB, C, TT, T, MH/ML.

E: Kenyan E is called elephant bean; it is large in size and relatively low in yield.

PB: The English name of PB is Peaberry, which is what everyone knows as round bean, oval in shape. A normal coffee fruit contains two coffee seeds, while a peaberry has only one seed.

AA: Kenyan AA can be said to be the most common grade, generally grown at an altitude of about 6,600 feet or above; its size is larger, with a screen size of 17/18.

AB: Screen size is 16/17. Kenyan AB coffee beans are composed of A and B coffee beans. Grade A is selected using a 6.8 mm screen, while grade B is selected using a 6.2 mm screen. These two types of beans, A and B, are mixed together to form Kenyan AB grade.

C: Screen size is below 14.

TT: Kenyan TT refers to low-density coffee beans separated by aspiration from Kenyan AA, AB, and E coffee beans. The screen size is large but the density is low, yet if the quality is sufficient it can still be included in specialty coffee.

T: Below 14 screen size, small beans, and density and quality are not sufficient to be included in specialty coffee.

MH/ML: Low-quality natural beans, mostly overripe beans dried on the tree.

The Front Street Kenya Asali coffee beans released by Front Street's own roasting belong to the AA grade, come from the Thika region, use the Kenyan 72-hour washing method, and are of the SL28 and SL34 varieties, making them the first choice of many acidity-loving coffee enthusiasts. If you are tasting this Front Street Kenya Asali coffee for the first time, Front Street suggests trying it as a hot pour-over black coffee, which allows you to better feel the flavor characteristics of Front Street Kenyan coffee.

Front Street pour-over recommendation

Lightly roasted coffee beans allow high-altitude coffee beans to retain more floral and fruity aromas. Compared with medium-dark roasting, the internal structure of lightly roasted coffee beans is tighter and requires higher water temperature and finer grinding to better extract the coffee's flavor compounds. Here Front Street uses hot water at 92–93°C for extraction, and for grind size Front Street uses a No. 20 standard sieve with an 80% passing rate.

The flavor description of every Front Street coffee is based on freshly roasted beans. If the coffee beans are stored for more than a month, part of the aroma has likely already been lost, and it is difficult to reproduce it in brewing. Front Street also deeply understands the importance of freshness, so it ensures that only coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days are shipped, so that everyone can enjoy the most complete tasting window upon receipt.

Dripper: V60 Water temperature: 92-93°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: fine sugar size EK43s-setting 10 (grind to 80% passing a No. 20 sieve)

In the first stage, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95 grams (the electronic scale shows about 125 grams), finishing the pour in about 1 minute; when the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 grams (the electronic scale shows about 225 grams), finishing the pour in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Dripping is completed at 2'10"; remove the dripper and finish extraction.

Front Street Kenya Asali coffee pour-over flavor: the wet aroma has ripe tomato and floral notes; when hot, the entry is sweetness of caramel and yellow sugar; as the temperature drops slightly, the acidity of cherry tomato and smoked plum emerges, with bright acidity, a clean mouthfeel, medium body, prominent mid-palate sweetness, and a juicy feel. Front Street Kenya AA TOP beans are cleaner in flavor, with relatively rich layers, and also perform well in body, sweetness, and acidity.

At Front Street, many customers proactively ask to order iced coffee because, compared with piping hot drinks, they prefer iced coffee with a refreshing, juicy feel, so quite a few friends have also asked us how to brew a delicious iced pour-over coffee.

As for what parameters to use for iced pour-over, Front Street has a special formula here : Iced pour-over = coffee grounds (fine grind) + 10 times hot water + 5 times ice . Here, combined with fruity-acid medium-light roasted coffee beans, we further pair 91–93°C water temperature, small-stream circular pouring, and a three-stage method, so that the extraction time falls between 1 minute 50 seconds and 2 minutes, and you can easily brew a pot of iced coffee with on-point flavor.

The juicy sensation that appears in coffee is usually the rich fruity aroma smelled combined with the sweet-and-sour, juicy feeling perceived in the mouth when drinking, reminiscent of the experience of eating a certain fruit. When placing it into today's iced pour-over theme, it means obtaining both the acidic aromatic compounds of the front stage and pursuing the sweetness of the middle and back stages, so as to satisfy a sweet-and-sour juicy mouthfeel. Such a requirement cannot be met by the agitation of the water stream alone, so Front Street also adds one action: stirring.

Coffee beans: Front Street Kenya · Asali

Dose: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:11 (160 grams hot water)

Ice: 75 grams

Grind size: fine sugar / EK43s setting 9.5 (C40 around 22 clicks)

Dripper: Hario V60

Three-stage: 30 grams, 90 grams (+ stirring), 45 grams.

Before pouring, first put the ice in the sharing pot and add all the coffee grounds. The first stage bloom remains unchanged; keep a small stream and pour 30 grams in circles from the center outward.

After 30 seconds, begin pouring 90 grams of hot water in circles with a larger stream while raising the water level. When the timer scale shows 120 grams, stop pouring, use a small spoon to draw 5 circles along the dripper wall in one direction, then wait for the coffee liquid to slowly flow down.

When the water in the dripper is about to reach the bottom, use the same small-stream, small-circle pouring technique as the first stage to finish pouring the remaining 45 grams of hot water until all the coffee liquid has dripped through; then you can remove the dripper and finish extraction. The time will roughly fall within the range of 1 minute 55 seconds to 2 minutes 5 seconds.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.