Why is Kenyan Coffee More Acidic Than Yirgacheffe? Are the Berry Notes from the Washing Process?

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FrontStreet Coffee - Kenya Coffee Introduction

Have you ever wondered why Kenyan coffee tastes so unique, clean, and complex? Kenya uses a world-renowned unique wet processing method known as "Kenyan double fermentation" or "double soaking" washed method, which provides coffee with amazing flavor complexity and excellent consistency.

The two famous varieties from Kenya, SL28 and SL34, are hybrids of Bourbon, bringing unique blackcurrant and vanilla flavors to Kenya. Both SL28 and SL34 are productive in healthy conditions but have the lowest resistance to disease and are not resistant to cold.

There is also a newer Kenyan variety, K7, which has strong immunity to diseases, but its quality is not as high as the SLs. Ruiru11 is a high-yield plant resistant to leaf rust and CBD. It is a hybrid of "Rume Sudan" and "Hibrido de Timor" (Robusta/Arabica hybrid) varieties from the "Boma" highlands, like the hybrid of "SL28" and "SL34", used to improve flavor. "Batian" is a new high-yield disease-resistant variety released by the Coffee Research Foundation in Kenya in 2010. It is understood that its taste is comparable to the SLs.

In addition to the unique combination of climate, geography, soil, and varieties, Kenya's unique processing system allows coffee to reach incredibly high quality, while the special processing methods give coffee its unique flavor. Kenyan coffee, from seed to cherry, to parchment, to raw coffee beans, fully brings out all the wonderful flavors that the beans have potential for through special processing methods.

The first step in delivering raw coffee beans to customers is planting seeds. After three to five years of attention and careful protection, coffee trees have high productivity. Farmers in cooperatives or farms use traditional cultivation, pruning, selection, pulping, and processing methods, ensuring that every coffee tree receives full care every year. During the harvest season, farmers hand-pick mature and sweet coffee cherries.

Part of the reason for Kenya's unique flavor is the highly controlled approach to processing and classification. Strict sorting is completed at every stage of processing and during drying and grinding, creating a final product with very consistent flavor.

Before coffee production begins, coffee cherries are first selected from defective, overripe, and unripe coffee cherries. The coffee cherries are then sent to the factory, where mature cherries are sorted. They are usually directly processed by a large No. 3 or 4 depulper to remove the pulp, and the coffee cherries are called "parchment" from this point.

When low-density beans are removed, high-quality beans are flushed to a separate fermentation tank. The beans with parchment ferment overnight in large concrete containers, breaking down the pectin so it can be easily removed during the washing process. Depending on the temperature, fermentation takes 12-16 hours. Farm workers rub the parchment by hand to test the degree of fermentation. If the parchment is over-fermented, its subtle flavor characteristics will be destroyed, so it must be washed within a specific time to stop the fermentation process.

The beans with parchment are cyclically washed in fresh water every few hours and undergo a second fermentation to remove residual pectin, and are further sorted by density here. Lower-density coffee beans are classified again and sold as lower-quality coffee, while higher-density parchment beans are blocked by valves in the water channel, while workers use paddles to sweep along the channels to move the beans. Once the washing process is complete, the beans are moved to drying beds. To ensure even drying, the beans are sorted and stirred until the moisture content reaches 11-13%.

Some processing plants, after completing floating screening and depulping, retain the pectinated parchment for mechanical brushing and depulping instead of fermentation in tanks to remove pectin. Then the parchment beans undergo further washing, ensuring the cleanliness of the raw coffee beans, shortening the fermentation process, and further preserving the original flavor of the coffee. The washed coffee beans are moved to drying beds to reduce moisture content to a stable value before storage.

Knowledge Point

"Arabica" is not synonymous with good coffee. Even among Arabica varieties, there are grade differences.

In Summary

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