What Do Kenyan Coffee Grades Like AA and AA TOP Mean?

Kenyan coffee is graded mainly by bean size, weight and shape, with cup performance deciding the final placement. The eight main grades are E, PB, AA, AB, C, TT, T and MH/ML. AA is the top size grade, and TOP is a mark added by merchants after cupping, so AA TOP sits above plain AA in quality terms.

The system grew out of a government-led effort to manage quality and guide farmers, run through the Coffee Board of Kenya, founded in 1933, which holds weekly auctions at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. Uniform bean size matters because same-sized beans roast more evenly, which supports stability. Kenya AA TOP from the Thika region is typically double washed via the K72 process, giving bright berry acidity and a creamy finish.

Kenyan coffee is famous for its bright fruity acidity and clean flavor, and its grading system is based primarily on bean size and cup performance. Starting from Front Street Kenya AA TOP, this article systematically sorts out the definitions and differences of the eight major grades E, PB, AA, AB, C, TT, T, and MH/ML, with emphasis on explaining the connection and distinction between AA TOP and AA. At the same time, combined with Front Street Kenya Little Tomato coffee beans, it gives specific parameters for hot pour-over and iced pour-over, the three-stage pouring method, and flavor performance, helping coffee lovers understand the purchasing logic and brewing key points of Kenyan beans.

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AA is the best coffee grade of Front Street Kenya, and coffee of this grade is the cream of the crop, so much so that Front Street is deeply in love with this Front Street Kenya AA TOP from the Thika producing region. TOP is marked by Kenyan coffee merchants after cupping. This Front Street Kenya bean uses the K72 double washed fermentation process, and its acidity is very bright and lively, as delicate and mouthwatering as berries and red wine. During brewing, the rich berry aroma instantly wafts out, and on the palate there are obvious notes of cherry tomato and smoked plum; the acidity and fragrance linger together in the mouth for a long time, and the finish has a creamy sweetness with a lasting sweet aftertaste.

The Kenyan coffee grading system was established under a government-led policy of managing quality and guiding coffee farmers. After harvesting is completed, the official government-established body, the Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK), founded in 1933, holds a weekly auction at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange in the capital, Nairobi. Under this government-coordinated auction system, the grading system uses "bean size," weight, and shape appearance as the standards, and these are the main basis for auction prices.

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

E: Kenyan E is called elephant bean, 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 is a single seed.

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

AB: Bean size is screen 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: Bean size is below screen 14.

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

T: Below screen 14, 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 Little Tomato coffee beans launched by Front Street's own roasting belong to the AA grade, come from the Thika producing region, use the Kenyan 72-hour washing method, and are of the SL28 and SL34 varieties. They have solid cherry tomato aroma and a full juicy feel, and are the first choice of many sour-coffee lovers. Interested friends can buy them at Front Street stores and the Front Street Tmall flagship store. If you are tasting this Front Street Little Tomato coffee bean for the first time, Front Street suggests trying hot pour-over black coffee, which allows you to better feel the flavor characteristics of Front Street Kenya coffee.

Front Street Kenya Little Tomato Pour-Over Recommendation

Lightly roasted coffee beans allow high-altitude coffee beans to retain more floral and fruity aromas. Compared with medium-dark roasting, lightly roasted coffee beans have a tighter internal structure and require higher water temperature and finer grinding to better draw out the coffee's flavor substances. 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% pass 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, the aroma has likely already partially dissipated, 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 fullest tasting window upon receipt.

Dripper: V60

Water temperature: 92-93°C

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: fine granulated sugar size EK43s - setting 10 (sieve with No. 20 sieve bowl to 80%)

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 2/3 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 extraction is complete.

Front Street Kenya Little Tomato coffee pour-over flavor: the wet aroma has ripe tomato and floral notes. When hot, the entry is caramel and yellow sugar sweetness. As the temperature drops slightly, cherry tomato and smoked plum acidity emerge, bright acidity, clean mouthfeel, medium body, with a prominent sweetness in the middle section and a juicy feel. Front Street Kenya AA TOP beans are cleaner in flavor, with relatively rich layers, and also perform better in body, sweetness, and acidity.

At Front Street, many customers actively ask to order iced coffee, because compared with scalding hot drinks, they prefer refreshing, juicy iced coffee, so quite a few friends also ask 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 pair it with 91–93°C water temperature, a small stream in a circular pour, 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 excellent flavor.

The juicy sensation that appears in coffee is usually the rich fruity aroma smelled combined with the sweet-and-sour, succulent mouthfeel felt when drinking, reminding people of the experience of eating a certain fruit. When applied to today's iced pour-over topic, this means obtaining both the acidic aromatic substances of the front section and pursuing the sweetness of the middle and later sections, so as to satisfy a sweet-and-sour juicy mouthfeel. Such a requirement cannot be met by water flow agitation alone, so Front Street also adds one action: stirring.

Coffee beans: Front Street Kenya Little Tomato

Dose: 15 grams

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

Ice: 75 grams

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

Dripper: Hario V60

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

Before pouring, still put the ice cubes in the server first, and add all the coffee grounds. The first stage bloom remains unchanged, keeping a small stream and pouring 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 method 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 end 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.