Recommended Pour-Over Water Temperature Parameters for Kenya Coffee Beans - Flavor Profile of Cold and Hot Brewed Kenya Coffee

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Brewing Guide

In the early 20th century, French and British missionaries and researchers selected and cultivated direct descendants of Bourbon in Kenya. Over the following century these trees adapted to Kenya's phosphorus-rich soil and developed the special acidity and aroma that sets Kenyan beans apart from Bourbon grown in Central and South America. This Kenyan native variety was created in 1930 by Scott Laboratories, abbreviated to SL. Agronomists set out to find a disease-resistant, high-yielding Bourbon, and through their experiments they obtained SL28.

SL28 is a genetic variant with mixed lineage from French missionaries, Mocha and Yemeni Typica. The original aim in cultivating it was to mass-produce beans that combined high quality with disease resistance. Although SL28's yield later proved lower than hoped, its copper-coloured leaves and broad, bean-shaped seeds carry wonderful sweetness, balance and complex, varied flavours, along with pronounced citrus and black plum characteristics. This important variety is what introduces us to the distinctive FrontStreet Coffee Kenya style: intense, rich fruit acidity, full body and beautiful balance. FrontStreet Coffee Kenya AA is one such coffee. Most Kenyan coffee grows above 1,500 metres, using sensible cultivation and processing methods with a strong emphasis on quality management, so its aroma and acidity are better and its balance more outstanding. It has become one of the main representative coffees of the African region.

SL28 is a delicious variety suited to medium and high altitudes where leaf rust disease is not severe, and it can yield 1.8 tonnes of green beans per hectare. Only when you taste that charming plum-like acidity do you truly appreciate this Kenyan national treasure.

FrontStreet Coffee Kenya is a dynamic presence in the high-end Arabica green bean market. The highest grade Kenyan coffee is sold through auction bidding and is generally quite expensive, though there is not much quality difference between high-grade FrontStreet Coffee Kenya exports and auctioned coffee. The Kenyan government actively develops the coffee industry and maintains high standards in tree protection, quality management and coffee research, and the country's distinctive aroma and balanced taste keep lifting its value as specialty coffee.

Many friends tell FrontStreet Coffee that Kenyan coffee is very acidic. Indeed, FrontStreet Coffee Kenya is characterised by bright acidity, alongside flavours of berries, black plums and cherry tomatoes. Brewed improperly, however, it easily turns sharp and sour rather than showing Kenya's soft fruit acidity. One reason may be water temperature that is too low.

FrontStreet Coffee Kenya Nyeri AA

Region: Mt. Kenya

Estate: Mt. Kenya Nyeri Hill Estate

Variety: SL28, 34

Grade: AA

Harvest Period: June - December

Altitude: 1800M - 2100M

Processing Method: Washed

Hand Brew Parameters: 15g of powder, V60 filter cup, water temperature 91 degrees Celsius, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, grind size BG 6S (Chinese standard 20-mesh sieve pass rate 58%).

Technique: Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour evenly with a small water stream to 120g in stages. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 220g, then stop. Wait for the coffee to finish dripping, then remove the filter cup. The extraction time from the start of the bloom should be around 2 minutes.

Brewing Key Points: Water temperature cannot be too low, grind size should be similar to fine sugar, and extraction time cannot be too short.

Flavor Profile: Round, blackberry, sweet, taro, fruit acidity, aftertaste, balanced

Knowledge Extension: AA is a grading of green coffee beans based on their size and appearance. From large to small the order runs AA, AB, PB, C, E, TT and T. Kenya's largest AA green beans retain the most oil content, which gives the coffee its distinctive and intense aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If SL28's bright fruit acidity is what draws you to Kenya, FrontStreet Coffee's own Kenyan single origin is the obvious place to start. The FrontStreet Kenya Small Tomato comes from the Thika region, grown between 1,550 and 1,750 metres on the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties, and it is processed with Kenya's signature 72-hour double washed fermentation, which draws out the fruit while keeping the cup clean and pure. FrontStreet roasts it light to preserve as much of the lively acidity and layered fruit as possible.

On the nose it is dense with dried cherry tomato and florals; in the mouth you get clear cherry tomato and dark plum, a bright, solid acidity with the fullness of freshly squeezed juice, a prominent mid-palate sweetness threaded with snow pear and black plum, and a clean, lingering finish of brown sugar and light green tea. The balance of sweet and tart is hard to mistake.

Kenyan beans like this respond well to a fast, clean brewer, so FrontStreet suggests a Hario V60. The V60 was designed by Hario, the Tokyo glassmaker founded in 1921, and its reworked 2004 form took the name from its 60-degree cone and V shape; the single large hole lets the flow depend almost entirely on the pourer's control, which is exactly what makes it good at showing off floral and fruit-forward coffees. Brew 15g at a 1:15 ratio with water around 91 degrees Celsius and a medium-fine grind, pouring in stages, and the acidity stays juicy rather than sharp.