Best Kenyan Coffee Brands | Elegant Jasmine Flavor of Kenya AA Meru Washed Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee - Kenya Coffee Bean Recommendation: Kenya AA Meru Region Washed Introduction

Kenya AA is among the finest African coffees, known for a rich, full body, light acidity, and a smooth flavor with hints of wine. AA represents Kenya's highest quality grade. Kenyan coffee growing is divided mainly into two models: large-scale farms and cooperatives. The former tend to have larger planted areas and their own processing facilities, but most production is carried out by the many smallholders who band together into cooperatives. Microclimates give coffee from different areas subtle differences, yet the overall signature holds: a rich, intense aroma, bright, lively acidity, a full and elegant body, and berry flavors.

Many producing regions in Kenya treat AA as their top standard. Whatever the region, coffee marked AA is considered premium, which makes it hard to resist for drinkers who love acidity. Today FrontStreet Coffee is introducing a rare AA-grade coffee from the Meru region.

Kenya Meru

Meru is a town in eastern Kenya, in the eastern Meru central region, and it is the country's eighth-largest city. Most Kenyan coffee is grown on small farms organized into cooperatives. According to Kenya Coffee Board data, as of 2005 there were 700,000 smallholders organized into nearly 600 cooperatives, with close to 3,300 of them holding between 2 and 20 hectares of land.

The highlands around Meru have fertile volcanic soil, in deep red and orange, a mild climate, and seasonal rainfall, which lets the beans develop fully, giving rich flavors and pleasing acidity. Ripe berries are picked twice a year. The main harvest runs from October through the end of the year, and the secondary harvest continues from June into late July or early August.

SL-28

Kenyan varieties are typically Bourbon types carrying alphanumeric names, all prefixed with "SL" for the development codes of Scott Laboratories, where the strains were bred. SL-28 and SL-34 were identified by Scott Labs in 1931 and are the classic Kenyan varieties. SL34 brings a distinctive citric acidity and clean sweetness, while SL28 is renowned for balanced, bright acidity.

Kenya AA Meru Region SL-28 Variety [Washed]

KENYA AA KCB Meru SL-28

Product Information:

Region: Kenya, Meru Region

Grade: AA

Variety: SL-28

Altitude: 1700-2000 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Flavor Profile: Jasmine, fruity, sugar cane, papaya, velvety

Knowledge Extension: Kenyan coffee carries a rich berry aroma, along with the sour fragrance of plum juice and grapefruit and the fresh sweetness of sugarcane.

In summary: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation because we want more friends to fall in love with coffee. We also hold three coffee promotions at low prices every month, because FrontStreet wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price. That has been our mission for the past six years.

END

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Meru's washed AA is a shining example of how much clarity the washed process can deliver, and it is the thread that runs through several of FrontStreet's most-loved coffees. The Gedingding cooperative coffee from Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia is one: small local farms deliver their cherries to a cooperative that handles processing and sales together, and because the fruit is stripped before drying, the cup comes out exceptionally precise and clean, showing jasmine and bright citrus acidity with green tea and honey notes from a medium-light roast. It works equally well as pour-over, cold brew, or espresso.

If it is the deeper, juicier style you are after, Kenya's Asali washed AA is the textbook case. Kenya excels at double washing: the beans go through a second wash cycle including water flotation, washing off the mucilage left on the surface, an extended soak, drying, and finally hulling and storage. All that rinsing and soaking pushes the juice-like quality to its limit, yielding cherry tomato, dark plum, snow pear, black plum, and brown sugar in a sweet-sour, juicy cup. And washed processing sits behind one of the most famous names in coffee: Jamaica's Blue Mountain. The island's maritime climate brings less sunshine than other origins, so removing the skin, pulp, and mucilage before drying shortens drying time and lowers the risk of spoilage, producing bright, low-defect beans and a coffee with concentrated aroma, hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel, balanced so that nothing dominates.