What are the characteristics of Kenyan coffee? The world's top ten coffees Kenya! Kenya coffee grading system!

Friends who often buy coffee beans will not be difficult to find that the names of most coffee beans will always be followed by English suffixes such as AA and AB. Especially Kenya's coffee beans, such as Kenya AA, Kenya AB, Kenya PB, Kenya AA+, Top, etc.

"So what do these suffixes mean? "Recently, many friends have sent such inquiries at Qianjie offline stores. In fact, it is very simple. These are just like the G1 and G2 suffixes of Ethiopian coffee beans. They are the grade marks of coffee beans. Qian Jie shared in the article "Three Major Classification Systems for Coffee Beans" that in order to allow producers, traders, and consumers to quickly and clearly understand the quality and characteristics of coffee beans, coffee beans are generally sold before a systematic and standardized evaluation will be conducted first, and then the coffee beans will be awarded corresponding grades based on the evaluation results, and finally sold at the price corresponding to the grades.

Different countries have different grading systems. For example, Ethiopia grades coffee beans according to the defect rate, most coffee beans in Central and South America are graded according to the altitude of planting, and those using AA, AB and other grades are mainly graded according to the grain size of the coffee beans. This is indeed the case in Kenya's coffee grading, but in addition to the size of coffee beans, officials will also add other characteristics such as shape and hardness to comprehensively evaluate the grading of coffee beans. The rankings from high to low are: AA, AB, C, PB, E, TT, T, MH/ML. AA: The AA grade is the highest level in Kenya's official grade. Its requirement is that the grain size of coffee beans must be between 17 and 18 meshes. AB: The AB level is second only to the AA level. Its requirement is that the size of the coffee beans needs to be between 15 and 16 meshes. PB: PB is a special grade. The coffee beans in this grade have a round appearance, commonly known as round beans. E: The same as the PB grade, the coffee beans in the E grade will also have a special appearance. They will be larger than ordinary coffee beans, about 21 meshes, commonly known as elephant beans. C: The C level compliance requirement is that the size of the coffee beans needs to be between 13 and 14 meshes. TT: TT grade refers to those lighter coffee beans from AA and AB grades that can be blown up by blowers. T: Same as above. The T grade refers to the lighter quality coffee beans from the C grade that can be blown up by the blower. MH/NL: Coffee beans in this grade refer to those coffee beans that have not been carefully processed and of low quality. They are generally not used for export and are only sold domestically.

The above is Kenya's official coffee grading system. In addition to the above levels, as Qian Jie introduced at the beginning, there are also other levels such as AA+, AA TOP, FAQ, etc. These are not official national grading system levels. They are secondary grading of AA grade coffee beans by raw bean traders. The secondary grading standards of each merchant are different, but it is not difficult for us to guess that the evaluation is based on the performance of the coffee experience such as flavor, level, and taste. For example, the flavor of this bean is very excellent, the acid of this bean is very bright, and it is the best among AA coffee beans, so we can define it as AA+, or AA TOP level to distinguish it from other AA level coffee beans.

But what we need to know is that coffee beans such as AA+ and AA TOP are not necessarily better than AA coffee beans. They are grading added by the raw bean merchants themselves, and it is inevitable that there will be considerations in terms of commercial behavior. In addition, as Qianjie mentioned earlier, each exporter has its own standards, so the results are also different. Of course, raw bean merchants will not participate in such a game. Because they will think that the coffee beans they sell are already the best they have selected, there is no need to distinguish them from other coffee beans in this way. For example, the Kenyan Tomato currently sold by Qianjie on Tmall Taobao is Qianjie's final choice after testing dozens of Kenyan coffee beans. It is an AA grade coffee bean from Kenya's Assalia Processing Plant. Bean.

Front Street Coffee: Kenya Asalia

Production area: Sika

Processing plant: Asalia Processing Plant

Altitude: 1550~1750 meters

Varieties: SL28, SL34

Treatment method: Water washing

Flavors: dark plum, tomato, yellow sugar, black brimlin

In order to fully demonstrate Kenya's bright acidity and caramel texture, Qianjie chose a curve with a long development time to bake. In the end, the baking degree of this Kenyan tomato will fall to the medium light. The extraction parameters are as follows: The powder quantity is 15g, the powder and water ratio is 1:15, the grinding degree is 10 scale of Ek43, the sieving rate of No. 20 sieve is 75%~80%, the water temperature is 92°C, the filter cup is V60, and the extraction time is 2 minutes.

The Kenyan concentration brewed with this formula is just right. We can clearly taste the bright acidity of young tomatoes and dark plum trees, the sweetness of caramel, and the long ending charm of oolong tea. Very good ~

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