The characteristics and roasting methods of Kenyan coffee

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The characteristics of Kenyan coffee:

People in the coffee industry regard Kenyan coffee as one of its favorite products, with wonderful and satisfying aromas, balanced acidity, well-proportioned granules and excellent fruit flavors.

Kenyan coffee grades are divided into seven grades according to the size of coffee beans and six grades according to taste. The best coffee in Kenya is bean berry coffee (PB), followed by AA++, AA+, AA, AB and so on. The fine coffee is shiny, delicious and slightly alcoholic. "Kenya AA" is particularly well received in terms of taste.

Kenyan coffee has a slightly sour, thick aroma, raw bean particles are small, green to grayish green. Kenya's coffee beans are washed Arabica species, famous for (Kenya Arabica), especially in the United Kingdom, Kenyan coffee surpassed Costa Rican coffee to become one of the most popular coffee.

Flavor: aromatic, full-bodied, with fruit flavor, rich and perfect taste

Suggested baking methods: shallow baking, medium-shallow baking

★★★: excellent

1) production

The main coffee variety cultivated in Kenya is Arabica, but in addition, other varieties of coffee beans such as Blue Mountain Coffee (Blue Mountain) and French Missionary species (French Mission) are also grown in some earlier cultivation bases. There are two harvest seasons in a year, the main harvest season is from October to December, and the early harvest season is from May to July.

At this stage, farmers play a major role in the value chain. Their task at this time is to carry out various agricultural activities such as soil preparation, fertilization, spraying, plant maintenance and harvesting. There is a great difference in the employment of agricultural workers between small tenant farmers and large enterprises at this stage. Small sharecroppers can harvest 400 kilograms of fruit per hectare (about 2.1 kilograms per tree), compared with an average of 1.76 tons of coffee beans per hectare (about 8 kilograms per tree). This is mainly due to the fact that there is a certain gap between the basic agricultural tools of sharecroppers and the employment of agricultural workers, the use of modern science and technology is less, and the cost is too high to maximize the use of fertilizer and agricultural spray.

2) processing

Processing is the second stage of the entire coffee value chain, with 90% of Kenyan coffee processed wet and the remaining 10% dry. After the harvest, coffee farmers sell the coffee fruit to partners for further processing, each of which probably has one or two wet processing plants. Among them, 90% of the wet processing is carried out in the central wet mill, and the rest are treated separately, which is very conducive to the maintenance of quality. However, the wet processing machine technology of most of the partners is slightly out of date, so the actual quality of coffee has also been affected a little and declined. Compared with neighboring countries, Kenya's wet mill costs are relatively high, which affects its competitiveness in the international market.

3) auction / marketization

After the processing of coffee beans, the value chain has come to the stage of auction or marketization. The main participants in this stage include bakeries and packaging workshops, warehouse management companies, auctioneers or related business agents. There are two types of coffee marketization mechanisms in Kenya, namely the Central auction Mechanism (Central Auction) and the Direct Marketing system (Direct Sales System). The central auction mechanism is conducted under the auspices of a specific organization, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (Nairobi Coffee Exchange). At auctions, most marketing agents sell unroasted coffee beans to exporters after cataloging, classifying and setting reserve prices.

4) end market

a. International market (export)

After the stage of auction / marketization, the coffee value chain comes to the end market stage. At this stage, most products are exported in the form of raw coffee beans, only some are sold as processed or roasted coffee beans. As can be seen from the chart below, most of Kenya's coffee beans are sold to Europe, while Germany is the largest importer of coffee beans.

b. Domestic market

There are also many local bakeries in the Kenyan coffee industry, and there are currently about 23 coffee bakeries as the main workshops in Kenya. Major bakeries include Stevkham Enterprise,KPCU Coffee Exporters,Raki Investment,Malaiki Coffee and Tea,C Dorman,Kenya Nut Company,Mwangi Coffee,MA Pandit&Co,Bico,Cejo Investment,Cnetral Impex Enterprise and Nairobi Java House.

Kenya has a limited share of the local coffee market, because there are fewer local coffee drinkers in Kenya, so most of the coffee beans are sold abroad.

5) support the market

Some coffee industry support industries are involved and involved in the production, processing and baking of the entire value chain. The main supporters include water suppliers for agricultural irrigation and wet processing, power supply companies for production, processing and baking, and fertilizer and pesticide plants that provide fertilizer and spray during the production phase. In addition, the equipment supply and maintenance company and the agro-industrial capacity training company also played a certain role in the production process.