How Does Kenya's Coffee Grading System Work?

Kenya has become a leading specialty origin through favorable climate, government promotion, and a clear coffee grading system. The country grows high-quality Arabica with small, round beans and flavors of mild acidity, vinous notes, and floral aroma. Dormans Estate, founded in 1950, is among the largest producers and is called the King of African Coffee.

Dormans selects beans from designated smallholder estates in the Nairobi highlands, hand-picks and sun-dries them, and sorts by season and altitude. Its appraisers cup about 1,500 samples each week before beans enter blending and roasting. Kenya coffee from regions such as Nyeri, Kirinyaga, and Murang'a is often processed with the K72 washed method.

With its exceptional natural conditions and a continuously improving industry system, Kenya has become a coffee origin that cannot be overlooked on the global specialty coffee map. This article begins with Dormans Estate, one of Kenya's largest coffee producers, to review its quality control philosophy since its founding in 1950 and the origins of the title "King of African Coffee." It then systematically introduces Kenya's cultivation mechanisms, government promotion, grading system, and the K72 washed processing method, and analyzes the characteristics of core producing regions such as Nyeri, Kirinyaga, and Murang'a one by one. Finally, it includes the brewing parameters and flavor description of Front Street Kenya Cherry Tomato Coffee Beans, providing coffee enthusiasts with a complete knowledge map of Kenyan coffee.

Kenya has unique climatic conditions, which make it an important origin of high-quality Arabica coffee beans. The coffee beans produced locally fully absorb the essence of the coffee cherry, with flavors featuring slight acidity, vinous notes, and floral aromas, and a rich, full-bodied mouthfeel with small, round beans. The combination of traditional processing methods and modern technology allows Kenyan coffee to retain its distinctive flavor, making it deeply favored by coffee enthusiasts. Front Street Coffee is no exception; Kenyan coffee has long become a daily staple choice. Whenever there is a desire to taste berry- and cherry-tomato-like acidity, a cup is brewed to savor slowly, which fully demonstrates its appeal.

Kenya Dormans was founded in 1950 and is one of the largest coffee producers in Kenya. Dormans is renowned for consistently delivering internationally high-quality Kenyan coffee, and because of its outstanding quality it is called the King of African Coffee. Dormans selects coffee beans from designated smallholder estates in the Nairobi highlands, grown in the pure climate of the plateau, naturally organically cultivated, entirely hand-picked and naturally sun-dried, and classified and collected strictly according to seasonal changes and mountain altitude. Dormans' appraisers taste about 1,500 cups of coffee each week, and only the best-performing beans can enter the blending and roasting stages, ultimately becoming premium coffee products for consumers to enjoy. Dormans' products encompass all the fine characteristics of Kenyan coffee and can fully demonstrate the outstanding quality for which Kenyan coffee is famous worldwide.

Below, Front Street will provide a detailed review of knowledge related to Kenya as a producing region.

High-quality Front Street Kenyan coffee has a rich aroma, a solid taste, and fruity notes, with an overall rich and complete mouthfeel. Kenyan coffee has a wonderful fruity flavor, with notes of blackberry and grapefruit on the palate, making it a favorite among many coffee connoisseurs.

Kenya is located in eastern Africa, adjacent to Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Kenya did not introduce coffee until close to the 20th century, and during this period coffee almost traveled all the way around the world before returning to Africa. However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that although Kenyan coffee started relatively late, it developed very rapidly. During the period of British colonial rule, both the establishment of cultivation mechanisms and the determination of the grading system pushed Kenyan coffee beans step by step toward the specialty coffee market. Kenyan specialty coffee is now world-renowned, and FrontStreet Coffee summarizes the reasons as follows:

1. Establishment of cultivation mechanisms. In 1883, the British brought coffee into Kenya from Réunion. In 1922, Kenya established the Scott Agricultural Laboratories (Scott Labs, from which SL28 and SL34 get their names), specializing in coffee cultivation research. Over more than a decade after the laboratory was established, SL28 and SL34, suitable for cultivation in local producing regions, were selected and bred from 42 coffee varieties, laying a good start for the development of the coffee industry.

2. Government attention. In 1931, the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union and the Kenya Coffee Board were established one after another, guiding the development of the coffee industry from both civil and national levels. In 1937, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange was established, and Kenya's coffee auction system began.

3. Determination of the grading system. Kenya classifies grades based on coffee bean size and cupping results. According to bean size, shape, and hardness, from high to low they are AA or AA+, AB, PB, C, E, TT, T. For green beans in the AA and AB grades, a special grading based on cupping results is also added (not officially recognized by the Kenyan government, but established by exporters), from high to low as TOP, PLUS (+), FAQ.

4. K72 processing method. The unique acidity of Kenyan specialty coffee is closely related to its excellent processing method. General washed processing selects highly ripe coffee cherries, removes the skin and pulp, then soaks them in a fermentation tank to remove mucilage; this process rarely exceeds 36 hours. However, Kenya's fermentation time is as long as 72 hours, after which the beans are dried until the moisture content drops to 12%. Front Street believes that Kenya's unique washed processing method enables Kenyan coffee beans to display brighter acidity and a fuller juicy mouthfeel.

[Kenya Coffee Grading System] AA Plus (AA+): AA grade with especially excellent cup quality (flavor, mouthfeel). AA bean size (Screen Size) 17-18 mesh. AB bean size (Screen Size) 15-16 mesh, accounting for most of production. C bean size (Screen Size) smaller than AB. TT: Lightweight beans blown out by an air classifier from AA and AB grade beans. T: Lightweight beans blown out by an air classifier from C grade beans. E Elephant Bean: Large mutant beans formed by two beans merging into one, also called elephant ear. PB Peaberry: Classified by appearance, unrelated to flavor or weight.

For green coffee beans in the AA and AB grades, a special grading based on cupping results is added (not officially recognized by the Kenyan government, but established by exporters), from high to low as TOP, PLUS (+), FAQ. The Kenya Asalia on the FrontStreet Coffee bean list reaches the TOP level in flavor grade. However, as mentioned earlier, this is not an officially recognized grading system. Among the several Kenyan producing-region coffees FrontStreet Coffee purchases, not every one carries a flavor grade, so there is no need to overthink this part. Generally, once beans reach the AA and AB grades, the flavor is in fact already considered very high quality by default.

[Kenya Coffee Producing Regions] Kenya's coffee producing regions are mainly distributed in the central and western areas. The main coffee producing regions in the central area include Kiambu, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Muranga, Embu, Machakos, Ruiru, and Thika; the western region includes Kisii, as well as the Bungoma area located on Mt. Elgon.

FrontStreet Coffee updates the coffee producing regions on its bean list at regular intervals, and Kenya is no exception. Last month, FrontStreet Coffee purchased a batch of Kenyan coffee beans from different coffee producing regions. Through tasting in multiple stages such as roasting, cupping, and pour-over, it can be found that each producing region has its own different characteristics. Specialty coffee producing regions mainly come from the following areas: Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Murang'a.

Nyeri

The Nyeri producing region is located in central Kenya and is where the extinct volcano Mount Kenya is located. The red soil of this area nurtures Kenya's best coffee. Agriculture is extremely important in this region, and coffee is the most important crop among them. In the Nyeri producing region, cooperative societies composed of smallholders are more common than large estates. Altitude: 1,200 to 2,300 meters Harvest period: October to December (main season), June to August (secondary season) Varieties: SL-28, SL-34, Ruriu11, Batian.

Muranga The Muranga producing region belongs to Central Province, and there are about 100,000 coffee farmers in this area. This inland producing region was the place where the first missionaries chose to settle, because the Portuguese prohibited them from living in the coastal area. This is another producing region that benefits from volcanic soil, and the number of smallholder coffee farmers is also greater than that of estates. Altitude: 1,350 to 1,950 meters Harvest period: October to December (main season), June to August (secondary season) Varieties: SL-28, SL-34, Ruiru11, Batian

Kirinyaga The Kirinyaga producing region is located on the slopes of Mount Kenya, adjacent to the Nyeri producing region. It is world-famous for coffee with strong flavor, rich layers, and a solid mouthfeel, and together with the Nyeri producing region it is recognized as one of the two best producing regions in Kenya at present. Most producers in this area are small coffee farmers who join cooperatives, and the cooperatives play an integrating role by providing washed processing plants, while coffee farmers send coffee cherries to the cooperatives' processing plants for processing. Altitude: 1,300 to 1,900 meters Harvest period: October to December (main season), June to August (secondary season) Varieties: SL-28, SL-34, Ruiru11, Batian.

[Front Street Kenya Cherry Tomato Coffee Beans]

Producing region: Thika, Kenya

Processing station: Asalia Processing Station

Processing method: washed processing

Altitude: 1,550~1,750 meters

Varieties: SL28 & SL34

FrontStreet Coffee recommends pour-over as the extraction method

Brewing recipe

Coffee dose: 15 grams; coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15; water temperature: 89 to 92°C; time: 2 minutes; grind: EK43S#10

Bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 to 35 seconds, then pour water until 125 grams, at about 1 minute. When the water level drops by half, pour the remaining water, finishing the pour at about 1 minute 30 seconds to 1 minute 40 seconds. After filtration is completed at two minutes, remove the dripper.

Flavor description: pronounced berries, dark cocoa, syrupy, medium-high acidity, medium bitterness, clean, medium finish.

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