Kenya Coffee Bean Recommendations - Characteristics of Kenya SL Varieties - Distinctive Features of Kenya AA Coffee

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Kenyan coffee has always been a focus of attention for FrontStreet Coffee. Despite its relatively short history in coffee development, Kenya has leveraged its late-mover advantage to become a major producer of specialty coffee.

What is the flavor profile of Kenyan coffee?

Kenyan coffee features multi-layered flavors and juice-like acidity, with rich berry notes, a solid mouthfeel, vibrant acidity, and complex, varied flavors. Many high-quality Kenyan coffees also exhibit intense small tomato aromas that are truly memorable.

In 1893, when coffee was first introduced as a crop to Kenya, the country was under British colonial rule. The British colonial government subsequently promoted coffee cultivation extensively in Kenya to earn foreign exchange. After harvest, coffee beans were shipped to London for export sales.

In terms of timeline, Kenya has been cultivating coffee for over a century, making it one of the world's most important coffee-producing countries.

When discussing Kenyan coffee, two aspects immediately come to mind: its unique Kenyan washed processing method and its coffee bean grading system based on size. Common Kenyan coffee grades available in China include AA, AB, and PB. Although these are called "grades," does AA grade necessarily taste better than AB grade?

Kenyan Coffee Bean Grades

Kenyan coffee is inseparable from the factory model and Kenyan washed processing. The highest quality Kenyan coffee beans are primarily washed. Washed processed coffee is generally divided into eight grades:

E: Elephant Bean, also known as Elephant ear, flat beans with particle size above 19 screen

AA: Particle size 17 to 18 screen

AB: Particle size 15 to 16 screen, accounting for the majority of production

TT: Lighter weight beans blown out by air screeners from AA and AB grade beans

C: Screen size smaller than AB/below 14 screen, unable to be classified as specialty grade due to small size

T: Lighter weight beans blown out by air screeners from C grade beans (below 14 screen), unable to be classified as specialty grade due to both small size and low density

PB: Peaberry, meaning round beans, classified by shape rather than size, unrelated to flavor or weight, accounting for about 10% of total production

UG: Those that do not meet the above standards

Meanwhile, M'buni belongs to the grade of low-quality natural processed coffee beans. Due to poor quality, they do not undergo Kenyan washed processing and are generally used for the domestic Kenyan market.

MH: M'buni Heavy = large beans

ML: M'buni Light = small beans

This Kenyan coffee bean grading standard is primarily based on size. The difference between AA and AB is only in size, but would there be significant differences in flavor?

FrontStreet Coffee conducted blind cupping sessions with multiple AA, AB, and PB grade coffee beans from its inventory. The final results confirmed the pre-cupping hypothesis—although there are slight differences, the distinction is actually minimal. If the coffee beans come from the same producing region or even the same processing factory, with size as the only variable factor, the impact on coffee flavor is relatively low. Whether AA or AB grade, Kenyan coffee beans are equally delicious. The flavor differences between different regions may primarily stem from factors such as region, altitude, and growing conditions.

FrontStreet Coffee's perspective is not to suggest that Kenya's grading system is outdated. Perhaps AA and AB grade Kenyan coffees are not necessarily the best coffees, but they are certainly the most quality-assured coffees.

What contributes to Kenya's consistent quality?

Kenya's coffee varieties are L-28 and SL-34. These are two of the 40 varieties resulting from a research program led by Guy Gibson at Scott Laboratories. The laboratory cultivated and named these varieties in 1930. According to SL laboratory botanists, SL28 and SL34 are genetic variants. They constitute the vast majority of Kenya's high-quality coffee production, though these varieties are susceptible to leaf rust disease. SL34 has French missionary, Bourbon, and more Typica bloodlines. The copper-colored leaves and broad bean shape produce wonderful sweetness, balance, and complex flavors, with distinctive citrus and dark plum characteristics.

In addition to varietal assurance, there's also the processing工艺 for green coffee beans. Kenya widely adopts its unique washed processing method, known as K-72 washing. Kenya employs a repeated fermentation and washing cycle process. Processing begins on the day of harvest, selecting the highest quality coffee berries for pulping and fermentation, with a fermentation time of 24 hours, after which clean river water is used for washing. Then, the beans undergo another 24-hour fermentation with clean river water, followed by washing. This cycle is repeated 3 times, totaling 72 hours.

This environment of unified cultivation varieties and processing methods creates the stable flavor profile of Kenyan coffee.

Precisely because of Kenya's such stable flavor, FrontStreet Coffee has only added one Kenyan coffee to its menu that FrontStreet Coffee considers satisfactory—the Kenya Assalia AA coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Assalia

Region: Kenya, Thika region

Altitude: 1550-1750 meters

Varieties: SL28, SL34

Processing Method: Washed

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

When FrontStreet Coffee roasts these Kenyan coffee beans, considering the need to highlight their rich fruit acidity and full berry juice mouthfeel, FrontStreet Coffee adopted a medium-light roast.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

FrontStreet Coffee considers that this bean uses medium-light roasting, so FrontStreet Coffee will use higher water temperature and a faster-flowing dripper, mainly because high temperature is needed to extract its bright acidic characteristics, but FrontStreet Coffee doesn't want over-extraction due to high temperature, thus choosing the faster-flowing V60 dripper.

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, 15g coffee to 225ml water

Water temperature: 90°C~91°C

Grind size: Fine sugar size (80% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve)

First pour 30g of water for 30 seconds of bloom, then pour 95g (electronic scale shows around 125g), completing in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (electronic scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1 minute 40 seconds. Complete dripping at 2'00", remove the dripper, and finish extraction.

Brewing flavors: Entry notes of dark plum and cherry tomato, with strong and thick acidity in mouthfeel. The middle section features prominent sweetness with a juicy sensation. The aftertaste has berry aroma and brown sugar sweetness, with green tea fragrance.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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