Differences, Distinctions, and Award Recognition between Kenya Washed AA Grade Kirinyaga Region Kabare and Kongyu Varietals

Coffee in Kenya is mostly cultivated at altitudes of 1,400 to 2,000 meters. The growing regions include Ruiri, Thika, Kirinyaga, Mt. Kenya West, Nyeri, Kiambu, and Muranga, concentrated mainly on the foothills of Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range.

Many Kenyan coffee regions make a point of preserving native forest ecosystems, protecting natural gene banks, supporting the propagation of wild coffee varieties, and nurturing a diversity of coffee trees.

In 1930, Kenya's signature varieties SL28 and SL34 — bred and named by "Scott Laboratories" — were born in this favorable environment.

According to botanists at the SL laboratories, SL28 and SL34 are genetic variants. SL28 carries a mixed lineage of French Mission, Mocha, and Yemeni Typica. The original breeding goal was to mass-produce beans combining high quality with resistance to pests and disease.

Although SL28's yields ultimately fell short of expectations, its copper-colored leaves and broad, bean-shaped seeds produce wonderful sweetness, balance, and complex, layered flavors, along with distinctive citrus and plum character. SL34 tastes similar to SL28 — complex, shifting acidity and a lovely sweet finish — but with a heavier, richer, and cleaner mouthfeel. SL34 carries French Mission, Bourbon, and more Typica lineage. It looks much like SL28 but copes better with sudden heavy rains. Together these two varieties define the unmistakable Kenyan style: intense, vivid fruit acidity, full body, and beautiful balance.

Flavor Profile

Intense lemon and plum aromas in both the dry and wet fragrance. Sipped at a light roast, it opens with surprising floral and lemon notes plus a sweet-tart juiciness like grapefruit green tea and fresh citrus juice. Nudge the roast slightly darker and honey, raspberry, and black plum flavors emerge, with a green-tea sweet-tart finish that lingers pleasantly.

Origin and Processing

This Kenyan coffee comes from the Kongyu Processing Station of the Kabare Farmers' Cooperative Society in Kirinyaga, made with Kenya's double-washed method. It grows on the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya in Mbeere County at 1,550-1,750 meters, from the classic Kenyan varieties SL28 and SL34. Combined with the large day-night temperature swings and Kenya's red phosphorus-rich soil, sweet-tart notes have become this coffee's defining flavor signature.

The fresh cherries for this Kongyu AA lot are harvested and processed by 250 farmers supplying the Kongyu Processing Station under the Kabare Farmers' Cooperative Society. After pulping, fermenting, and washing with water from the nearby Kongyu River, the coffee is dried on African raised drying beds. Each season the station processes nearly 300 tons of fresh cherries. Once processed, the coffee is sold at the weekly auction held every Wednesday in Nairobi; after being bought by licensed exporters, it ships to consumer markets worldwide.

Tasting Experience

With Kenyan coffees we have usually chased those angular, powerful fruit acids. This one, however, felt gentle — like standing before the sea with a soft breeze blowing.

Product Information

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Address: 10 Bao'an Qian Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
Contact: 020-38364473
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Degree: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Kenya
Coffee Type: Other
Roast Level: Light roast

Brewing Method

Pour-over Kongyu: 15g of coffee at medium-fine grind (Fujimazu grinder 3.5), V60 dripper, water temperature 91-93°C. First pour 30g of water and bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop. Once the water level drops to half, pour again, slowly, up to 225g, and avoid the tail. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, total extraction time 2:00.

Coffee Details

Country: Kenya
Grade: AA
Region: Kirinyaga
Altitude: 1,550-1,750 meters
Soil: Red phosphorus-rich soil
Processing Method: Kenyan double-washed
Varieties: SL 28, SL 34
Processing Station: Kongyu Processing Station
Producer: Kabare Farmers' Cooperative Society
Flavor Notes: Grapefruit green tea, citrus, raspberry-black plum

Located in East Africa, Kenya is one of the world's major coffee producers, with roughly six million people nationwide working in the coffee industry, mostly as smallholders and cooperatives.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Washed processing is a traditional way of treating coffee cherries with water. The typical steps are flotation, depulping, soaking and fermenting to remove the mucilage, washing or further soaking, drying, and hulling. Because the beans spend so long in water, chemical changes take place inside them: simple sugars (fructose and glucose) are largely consumed, lowering the beans' sugar content while increasing various organic acids. Washed coffee therefore tends to preserve more of the bean's own aromatics while showing bright fruit acidity, cleanliness, and freshness.

Kenya is a master of this approach, and FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Cherry Tomato is one of its best-known representatives. Kenya often applies a double wash — an extra round of washing: flotation, soaking, washing off the mucilage clinging to the bean surface, soaking again, then drying and hulling for storage. All that repeated rinsing and soaking gives the juice-like character an extreme expression: aromas of cherry tomato, dried plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar, with a sweet-tart, juicy cup that coffee enthusiasts love.

Another washed classic at FrontStreet Coffee is the Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1. Jamaica's island climate brings shorter sunshine hours than most origins, and to reduce the risk of beans spoiling during drying, washed processing was born there. The key difference from natural processing is that the skin, pulp, and mucilage are removed before drying, cutting down the moisture trapped around the bean, shortening drying time, and yielding bright, low-defect beans. Washed processing keeps Blue Mountain's aroma rich and concentrated: hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel in a perfectly balanced cup where nothing stands out and nothing is missing.