Kenya Africa Coffee AA Grade Classification System & Kenya Coffee Region Flavor Profiles

FrontStreet Coffee - Kenya Coffee Classification System and Development History

Coffee appears in records as early as the 8th century AD, and by the 17th century coffee houses were all the rage. Kenya's neighbor, Ethiopia, is celebrated as the birthplace of coffee. Yet coffee itself only entered Kenya in the 19th century, with cultivation beginning in the early 20th. Today, however, Kenya stands among the world's leading specialty coffee origins.

At first, coffee was grown on large plantations under British colonial rule, with the harvested beans shipped to London for sale. In 1933 the Coffee Ordinance was passed and the Kenya Coffee Committee established, moving coffee sales back into Kenyan hands. In the early 1950s, shortly after the Mau Mau Uprising, the government passed the Agricultural Act, allowing each family to increase its landholdings, families could grow beyond subsistence and farm for income. That marked the start of coffee production shifting from British to Kenyan ownership. Total revenue climbed from £5.2 million in 1955 to £14 million in 1964, with 55% of the growth attributed to coffee production.

Kenya is famous for grading beans by size. The system generally runs to nine grades. By shape there is PB, peaberry, which accounts for about 10% of total production. By size there are E (Elephant Bean), AA, AB, C, T, TT, MH, and ML.

Kenya Coffee Grade Classifications

AA Plus (AA+): AA grade with particularly excellent cupping quality (flavor, mouthfeel)

AA: Screen size 17-18

AB: Screen size 15-16, making up the majority of production

C: Screen size smaller than AB

TT: Lighter-weight beans blown out of AA and AB lots by air classifiers

T: Lighter-weight beans blown out of C grade by air classifiers

E: Elephant Bean, a large mutant bean formed from two beans fused together, also called elephant ear

UG: Beans that do not meet the standards above

PB: Peaberry, classified by shape, unrelated to flavor or weight

Knowledge Bonus

Kenyan coffee trades through two main channels: auction at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, the central auction system through which 85% of beans are sold, or direct trade, often called "the second window", which accounts for the remaining 15%.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia, just across the border, is the wellspring of it all: the origin of coffee, home to countless native varieties, and a treasure land in the eyes of coffee lovers who follow its flavors faithfully.

The entry point is FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe, where you taste clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity, the quintessential Yirgacheffe. The town sits in southern Ethiopia, spring-like year-round, cool and misty, where thousands of coffee trees thrive and weave together the region's unique floral-and-fruit character: a light, elegant, tea-like cup, like a clean, refreshing lemon tea.

Ethiopian coffee is mostly grown garden-style, with each smallholder sending harvested cherries to village-level washing stations, where lots sell under the team's name, hence all the cooperative coffees, such as FrontStreet Worka (Guodingding) and FrontStreet Konga. The Guodingding cooperative, in the Worka region at the southeastern tip of Yirgacheffe, was once part of the YCFCU's Worka cooperative; as demand for traceability grew and single-origin micro-lots were unearthed by coffee hunters worldwide, its roughly 300 member farmers formally established the independent Guodingding cooperative in 2012. Because the fruit flesh is stripped before drying, the coffee's own aromatics come through with unusual clarity, citrus and lemon tones with elegant white florals, bright and delicate throughout.

For naturals, FrontStreet's Red Cherry lot removes any broken or moldy cherries first, then sun-dries for two weeks so the fruit sugars and essence infuse the beans. Once moisture drops to 12%, the hardened flesh, mucilage, and pods are milled off, and the beans pass density and color checks plus hand sorting to eliminate defects, layer upon layer of screening. The result is pristine beans with rich, captivating fruit; the flavor reads peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon.