African coffee beans what are the main coffee producing areas of Kenya? what are the beans named after?

Professional coffee knowledge exchange more coffee bean information please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

Introduction of Kenyan coffee in Qianjie

Kenya is located in the equator stretching from east to west, and the Great Rift Valley of East Africa stretching from north to south.

It is bordered by Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the northwest and Ethiopia to the north.

From east to west, the altitude changes from low to high. The coast is the plain and the west is the plateau. The plateau is split in two by the north-south East African Rift Valley.

The eastern coast is about 500m above sea level, and the western plateau is the eastern part of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, with an elevation of 2000-3000 m.

The highest peak in the country is 5199 meters of Kiriyaga, Kirinyaga, also known as "Mount Kenya", Mount Kenya.

It is the origin of the name of the country.

Kirinyaga is a local language from the Kikuyu, which means "white mountain" and is considered to be the place of the gods.

The reason why Europeans call it "Mount Kenya" is said to be unable to imitate the local pronunciation "kirinyaga" very well.

Main producing areas

Boutique coffee producing areas are mainly from the following counties: Nyeri Neri, Kirinyaga Kirinaga, Murang'a Mulanka.

In addition, Embu Enbu and Laikipia Lecipia are also common.

Referring to the topographic map, we can see that the well-known producing areas are located around Mount Kenya.

Naming of raw beans

The name of Kenyan raw bean can basically be interpreted in the following ways:

Country name + county name + (cooperative name +) processing plant name + grade + other

For example, Humen Coffee's 2015 Kenya Nyeri Gatomboya AA GP (click on the link, raw bean resume), that is, the raw bean is an AA grade raw bean from the Kato Boya processing plant in Neri County, Kenya, packaged in a special grain bag. (refer to the blog post for the interpretation of common raw bean label nouns)

Kenyan coffee is mainly named after coffee processing plants, and it is difficult to trace it back to specific farmers.

Thanks to Kenya's famous coffee auction system, coffee quality can be steadily maintained at a high standard.

Classification of processing plants

Coffee growers in Kenya are mostly small farmers. Coffee farmers are mainly responsible for harvesting and sending the fresh fruits of the picked coffee to the processing plant.

Processing plants are generally divided into two categories: wet processing plant, wet mill, and dry processing plant dry mill.

The wet processing plant is responsible for peeling and drying the fresh fruit, and the dried beans with shells are sent to the dry processing plant.

The dry processing plant is responsible for completing the shelling, grading and other follow-up operations required for export.