What Do "AA" and "TOP" Mean for Kenyan Coffee Beans?

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Kenyan coffee has long been globally renowned for its distinctive and complex berry-like aromas, refreshing sugarcane sweetness, and juice-like acidity, beloved by coffee enthusiasts worldwide. However, when purchasing Kenyan coffee beans, you'll notice that most coffee exported from Kenya features designations like "AA," such as FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Asalia AA TOP. So what do the "AA" and "TOP" after the coffee beans mean?

First, the "AA" designation after the coffee beans refers to the grade of these beans. Coffee beans are agricultural products, so their quality varies. Each coffee-producing country establishes its own classification system based on local conditions. The purpose is to produce homogeneous commercial batches that meet established quality standards, thereby promoting a fair pricing system.

The Kenyan government established an auction system in 1934 to ensure coffee quality is closely linked to price. Each year, thousands of Kenyan small-scale farmers consolidate their coffee beans through cooperatives and send them to the central auction house in Nairobi. These beans undergo a strict grading process before auction.

Whether sold domestically or internationally, the same grading system is used. Coffee beans are rated according to their size, shape, color, and density, generally using size and quality as indicators. There are clear classifications: AA, AB, PB, C, E, TT, and T. This strict grading ensures coffee bean quality.

AA grade coffee beans measure between 17-18 screen size, have excellent density, are recognized as the highest quality locally, and possess elegant mouthfeel and flavor.

AB grade coffee beans measure between 16-17 screen size. Although not as high quality as AA, they are more affordably priced and equally popular, representing the highest production volume at approximately 40% of Kenyan coffee.

PB refers to round-shaped green beans—single round beans from coffee cherries instead of the common two flat beans. Only 5% of Kenyan coffee beans are this round shape, classified by appearance with no relation to flavor or weight.

C grade coffee beans measure between 12-14 screen size and are smaller in dimension. Beans of this grade generally do not qualify as specialty grade.

E grade beans, with the full name Elephant (also known as Elephant beans), are similar to round beans—specialty coffee beans with developmental abnormalities. These beans form when two coffee beans intertwine during development, creating what appears to be one very large coffee bean, measuring over 21 screen size and being extremely rare.

TT grade coffee beans are lightweight beans classified from E, AA, and AB grade beans through air screeners, resulting in beans measuring 16-20 screen size.

T grade coffee beans are broken, defective, and overly small beans classified from C grade beans, generally measuring below 12 screen size.

MH/ML grade coffee beans refer to lower quality coffee beans, primarily processed using natural methods and sold only domestically, not exported.

Therefore, in Kenyan grading, "AA" represents the highest local grade. However, the size of coffee beans does not directly affect their taste quality—the growing environment is the primary flavor influence during coffee bean development. Consequently, local coffee research institutions and green bean traders use their own coffee grading system for a secondary assessment of exported coffee.

This system is called the Coffee Bean Quality Grading Procedure (Kenyan Classification Procedure by Quality Assessment), established by the Kenyan Coffee Research Foundation. "TOP," "Plus (+)," and "FAQ" are secondary assessment markers, typically placed after the original grade and generally classified according to cupping scores.

TOP grade beans have cupping scores above 86 points, Plus (+) beans score between 84-86 points, and FAQ beans score around 83-84 points. However, this system is not officially certified by Kenya, so most Kenyan beans currently available on the market still use conventional size-based grading.

Current Kenyan Coffee New Grading Standards

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the Kenyan Coffee Research Foundation and local industries commonly use a Coffee Bean Quality Grading Procedure established by the Kenyan Coffee Research Foundation when assessing coffee quality, based on three comprehensive aspects: green bean quality, roasted bean quality, and cupping quality.

Green Bean Quality

Assessment criteria include green bean appearance and size, green bean color, and defects.

Roasted Bean Quality

Assessment includes center crack condition, roasted bean condition, and defective beans.

Cupping Quality

Scoring is based on acidity, body/texture, flavor, and negative defects.

Combining scores from these three aspects, coffee beans are classified into grades 1-10, with grade 1 being the best and grade 10 being the worst.

As can be seen from the above, the difference between AA grade, AB grade, and PB grade coffee beans lies only in size. However, generally speaking, larger screen size beans have lower defect rates, resulting in cleaner flavors and naturally higher prices.

FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Small Tomato Coffee Beans

Country: Kenya

Region: Asali (Honey Processing Station)

Altitude: 1550-1750m

Variety: SL28, SL34

Processing: 72-hour washed processing

Flavor: Snow pear, black plum, brown sugar, cherry tomato, plum

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee, considering that this bean is processed using a medium-light roast method, recommends using higher water temperature and a faster flow rate dripper. This is mainly to extract its bright acidity characteristics with high temperature, but to avoid over-extraction caused by high temperatures, the faster flow V60 dripper is chosen.

Powder-to-water ratio: 1:15

Coffee powder: 15g

Total water injection: 225ml

Water temperature: 91°C

Grind size: Coarse sugar granularity | EK43s setting 10 (80% pass-through rate through #20 standard sieve)

For the brewing process: First, inject 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then inject 95g (electronic scale shows approximately 125g), completing injection in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the powder layer, inject the remaining 100g (electronic scale shows approximately 225g), completing injection in about 1 minute 40 seconds. The drip finishes at 2'00", remove the dripper to complete extraction.

Brewing Flavor: The first sip reveals flavors of black plum and cherry tomato, with strong and solid acidity in the mouthfeel. The mid-section features prominent sweetness with a juicy sensation, while the afternote presents berry fruit aroma and brown sugar sweetness, accompanied by green tea fragrance.

Important Notice :

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Tel:020 38364473