Kenya Nyeri AA

Kenyan coffee has a snap to it that is easy to recognise once you have tasted it: blackcurrant and citrus, with brown sugar underneath. This lot comes from the Mathira Hills farmers' society in Nyeri, where about 1 800 members grow coffee on small plots between their tea and bananas and deliver cherry to the society's wet mill. Pieter cupped eleven lots from Nyeri this year and chose this one for its clean, sweet finish.

In the cup

Blackcurrant, pink grapefruit, brown sugar. A medium body with a juicy, winey acidity. It is lively when hot and turns jammy as it cools.

The details

• Origin: Kenya
• Region: Nyeri, central highlands
• Producer: the Mathira Hills farmers' society
• Altitude: 1 700 to 1 900 m
• Process: washed, fermented overnight, washed again and dried on raised beds for 10 to 14 days
• Variety: SL28 and SL34
• Grade: AA (screen 17 and up)
• Roast: light, 2 of 5

How we brew it

A plunger gives this coffee body without dulling its acidity.

1. Grind 30 g of coffee coarse, like rough sea salt.
2. Add 500 g of water at 95 °C (a ratio of 1:16.7) and start a timer.
3. At 4 minutes, stir the crust and skim off the foam.
4. Press gently and pour it all out straight away, so the coffee does not sit on the grounds.