Kenyan Premium Coffee: How to Roast Kenyan Coffee and Brewing Parameter Recommendations

Kenya AA is often considered one of the world's brightest specialty coffee beans, though that claim is debated among professional cuppers and everyday specialty coffee drinkers. What is certain is that Kenya AA is one of the best known coffees in the world and one of the most favored among connoisseurs. The largest and best-known Kenyan grades are Kenya AA and Peaberry. Kenya AB is also frequently rated highly and is an acceptable alternative when AA is unavailable.

Kenya AA grows at altitudes above 6,600 feet and is considered one of the world's finest coffees. High altitude means the beans grow more slowly than they would at lower elevations, taking in more nutrients and gaining more time to develop flavor and mature.

Coffee beans produced in Kenya have a full body and rich, strong flavors with very pleasant acidity. The fragrant aroma also carries floral notes, with a wine-like aftertaste and hints of citrus and berries.

Grading

The largest screen size in the Kenyan grading system is E (Elephant), followed by PB (Peaberry) and AA, which means the raw bean diameter is only slightly larger than a quarter inch (1/4"). While AA is the most common on the market, other grades can sometimes be found, though they will not significantly change the flavor.

Kenya AA specifications: Screen 21; 18 days retention; 7.2mm diameter.

Kenya's coffee farm altitudes make its beans Strictly High Grown (SHG) / Strictly Hard Bean (SHB), the best category.

Roast Level

The best Kenya AA coffee is typically medium roasted, allowing the coffee's natural brightness to shine. Roasting it darker loses the nuances that make this bean so exceptional, though a darker roast is an option for those who prefer a more "coffee-like" flavor.

As with any single-origin Arabica, freshly roasted coffee performs better than coffee that may have sat in distribution warehouses and on shelves for months. When buying from large retailers such as Amazon and Starbucks, check that the coffee is labeled as freshly roasted and that the label clearly explains what that means; some companies say "freshly roasted when packaged" even when the coffee was packaged months earlier.

At FrontStreet Coffee, stale beans are never allowed. All of our coffee beans are freshly roasted, unless a customer buys them and then stores them at home for a long time without brewing.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you love the bright, juicy, fruit-driven acidity that makes Kenya AA so distinctive, FrontStreet Coffee roasts several coffees in that same vein. The FrontStreet Colombia Sidra is a light-medium roast from the Frontera Estate, a competition-winning variety that pours out floral notes with tropical fruit, grape, dried fruit and passion fruit, plus a juice-like body. For a cleaner, tea-like expression, the FrontStreet Gotiti Cooperative lot from Ethiopia is an Ethiopia G1 washed coffee with elegant white floral, citrus, orange and green tea notes.

And because freshness is decisive for a coffee this aromatic, FrontStreet roasts to order and recommends grinding just before brewing, so the floral and wine-like notes described above reach the cup intact.