Kenya Kangocho Estate PB Beans: Premium Small Estate Production with Exceptional Floral and Fruity Aroma

FrontStreet Coffee - Kenya Kangocho Estate PB Peaberry Introduction

Kangocho Farm, strictly speaking, refers to Kangocho Factory, a micro wet mill made up of dozens of small farms. Together with two other well-known factories, Ndaroini and Gichathaini, it forms a small cooperative operated and supervised by the Gikanda Cooperative Society.

This Gikanda Cooperative Union is, in fact, the headquarters of the frequent winners in our Round Table Competition.

Kongocho sits in the Nyeri highlands. By the time you reach the Nyeri region, the elevation is already 1,550 meters, so altitude is not the main issue for coffee grown here. What decides quality instead is the microclimate, the care taken during cultivation, and meticulous post-harvest processing.

According to official figures, Kenya currently has 700,000 smallholder farmers, more than 600 cooperatives, and over 3,300 estates. Estates typically range from 2 to 20 hectares. Even more important are the 700,000 micro-smallholders who form joint wet mills, which are the main source of good coffee. But because there are so many smallholders, cherries delivered to wet mills and then passed on to cooperatives often leave behind only a code, with most batches mixed together with everything processed that day. Finding truly high-quality small-estate coffee is extremely difficult, much like trying to find estate coffee in Ethiopia and Rwanda. After all, Africa is Africa, not Central or South America.

Kenya Nyeri Kangocho Estate PB Peaberry

Country: Kenya

Region: Nyeri Highlands

Estate: Kongocho Estate

Grade: PB Top Peaberry

Altitude: 6,000 feet

Soil: Volcanic soil

Variety: primarily SL 28

Harvest Period: September 2012 - latest harvest processing

Processing Method: hand-picked and centrally processed at the estate's wet mill, 100% washed, using African-style drying on raised beds

Dry Aroma: multiple floral notes, sweet fragrance, citrus

Wet Aroma: sweet berries, honey, orange soda, sweet lime

Cupping Notes: a very clean entry, delicate flavor, distinct aroma, and bright, sweet fruit flavors with excellent sweetness. Front, middle, and back sections show diverse, varied flavors: citrus sweetness, vanilla and herbal notes, and honey sweetness. Excellent clarity, very transparent, with a persistent aftertaste.

Knowledge Point:

The ovary of a coffee flower contains two ovules. Because the plant is self-pollinating, the pollination rate is extremely high. Usually both ovules are successfully pollinated and develop into a coffee berry containing two seeds - the familiar flat beans.

In Brief:

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three coffee discount events, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more friends to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Kenya's washed brightness and clear floral-fruity aromatics have close cousins in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe is the classic place to start. You get clear jasmine florals and a bright citrus acidity - the Yirgacheffe that baristas rave about is named for a small southern Ethiopian town that sits between about 1,700 and 2,100 meters, where cool, misty, humid air lets thousands of coffee trees thrive. The result is a delicate, elegant cup that weaves florals and fruit acidity with a tea-like body, like a clean, refreshing lemon tea.

For a forest-grown take on the same floral-and-citrus theme, try FrontStreet Coffee's Kaffa Forest. Unlike the garden-farming model where farmers plant trees in their own backyards, Kaffa Forest is best known for wild coffee, with trees growing in shaded conditions at altitudes of 1,400 to 2,100 meters. Its natural setting, microclimate, red soil, and abundant rainfall give the cup a clear white-floral aroma on grinding, a bright lemon acidity on entry, sweet orange and bergamot flavors, and a light melon and nutty sweetness in the finish, with a green-tea-like body.