An Introduction to Kenya Coffee Bean Grading System: Is AA Grade the Best from Kenya?

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Kenya Coffee Grading System

Grown at altitudes as high as 6,600 feet, Kenya AA is regarded as one of the world's finest premium coffees. Beans from the Kenyan highlands deliver a full body with a rich, robust and very pleasant acidity. The fragrant aroma carries floral notes, with wine-like undertones in the aftertaste alongside citrus and berry. In the Kenyan grading system, AA denotes the largest screen size, meaning the beans measure just over 1/4 inch in diameter.

Kenyan coffee is typically grown between 1,500 and 2,000 meters, and most of it comes from smallholders who harvest twice a year. These beans are known for their fruity character and rich taste, with a clear lean toward acidity. To give smallholders a fairer deal, Kenya also built a comprehensive auction system — one that successfully put an end to the exploitation farmers had long faced.

Kenyan Coffee Bean Grades: AA(AA+), AB, C, PB, TT, T, E

E: Elephant beans, generally a hybrid of Maragogype.

Normally a coffee cherry contains two seeds facing each other, each flat on one side — these are called flat beans, or sometimes mother beans or twin beans. E beans form when those two seeds fuse during growth, producing an unusually large bean. As a natural mutation, they're extremely rare.

AA, AB, C: Typica varieties, graded from largest to smallest.

AA is the largest, AB comes next, and C covers even smaller beans.

PB: rare round beans (peaberries).

Because round beans are far less common, they're considered comparatively precious.

TT, T: lighter-weight beans.

TT and T beans are graded separately because their weight and hardness fall short of official standards. TT beans sit between AA and AB in size, while T beans are close to C. Both are separated out for being underweight and insufficiently hard.

The beans you'll most often see in cafés are still Kenya AA or Kenya AA+. So next time you spot a long coffee name on a menu, do you know how to read it? Just remember: the word "Kenya" signals coffee with fruity notes, and everything after it is simply a distinction of bean size and weight.

Knowledge Extension: Natural vs. Washed Processing

In natural processing, the whole cherry is dried first and the fruit skin is removed afterward; in washed processing, the skin is removed first and the beans are then dried.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Kenya is famous for its vivid berry acidity — and if that's the kind of cup you love, it's worth exploring Africa's other fruit-forward origins too. FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Gutingting Cooperative is a classic washed Yirgacheffe, prized for its white-floral sweetness and bright citrus acidity. The floral note sits close to jasmine, the finish recalls green tea, and as a pour-over it shows a clear floral-fruity profile with lifted lemon acidity and honeyed sweetness. It's just as good as a cold brew, where the low-temperature steep draws out lighter, delicate compounds for an iced coffee that drinks like tea.

If you like your fruit turned up even further, try FrontStreet's Natural Huakui. It's known for a creamy strawberry note, the reward of ripe cherries drying in the sun, with a silky entry that evokes orange blossom alongside juicy tropical fruit such as guava and mango. For something bolder and more layered, FrontStreet's Mozart — a Costa Rican raisin-honey coffee — brings candied fruit, ripe pineapple and sweet orange, plus an osmanthus-like aroma the moment hot water hits the grounds. All three are easy to brew and wonderfully approachable.