Kenya Coffee Flavor Characteristics with Cherry Tomato Acidity - Introduction to Kenya Premium Coffee Bean Origins and Varieties

For more premium coffee knowledge, please follow the official WeChat account: FrontStreet Coffee

The Unique Flavor Profile of Kenyan Coffee

Kenyan coffee is known for its extremely high acidity, featuring distinct fruit flavors. Premium Kenyan coffee is aromatic, rich, and offers a perfectly complete taste profile. Kenyan coffee carries notes of blackberry and grapefruit, making it a favorite among many coffee connoisseurs. This coffee features excellent medium purity and a refreshing taste. Its flavor is fresh and particularly suitable for making iced coffee during summer. When tasting this coffee, it's best paired with acidic fruits like grapefruit or cocoa products.

The Backbone: Kenyan Smallholder Farmers

However, don't underestimate Kenyan smallholder farmers. They are like an army of ants, with overall production capacity higher than large farms—about a 6:4 ratio, which is quite rare among coffee-producing countries. Additionally, Kenyan beans have a strict grading system. Coffee beans extracted from washing stations are classified into seven grades based on size, shape, and hardness. The highest grade is AA or AA+, followed sequentially by AB, PB, C, E, TT, and T. This grading system is similar to Colombia's, primarily considering particle size and appearance, but good appearance doesn't necessarily mean good flavor. This is something coffee enthusiasts should understand.

Kenyan Farm Structure and Quality Assurance

Kenyan coffee farms come in two types. One is large-scale plantations covering about five acres, but with generally lower average altitudes. For Kenyan coffee, the quality from large farms is considered only medium. Higher-quality Kenyan beans come from small farms, mostly located on volcanic slopes above 5,000-6,000 feet. Each smallholder produces only about 20 to 70 bags per season, making it difficult to invest in expensive washing stations. However, small farmers are very united, forming cooperative farms with hundreds or thousands of households. The government funds the construction of washing stations, and small farmers send their harvested coffee cherries to these cooperative farms for unified processing. This includes removing underripe or rotten cherries, followed by pulping, fermentation, mucilage removal, bean extraction, drying, and polishing. The entire process is supervised by the official Coffee Board, ensuring strict quality control for Kenyan coffee.

The Secret Weapon: K72 Double Washing Process

Of course, there's another key factor that gives Kenyan coffee its excellent acidic fruit flavors—the locally prevalent double washing method, also known as the K72-hour washing process.

Generally, the coffee washing method involves removing the coffee cherry's skin and pulp first, leaving only a thin layer of mucilage for washing and fermentation for 24-48 hours, followed by machine or sun drying. However, the Kenyan washing method is quite different—the entire fermentation process reaches 72 hours.

The Kenyan washing method uses a repeated fermentation and washing cycle. On harvest day, the highest quality cherries are selected for pulping and fermentation, which takes 24 hours. After 24 hours, they're washed with clean river water. Then they undergo another 24-hour fermentation in clean river water, followed by washing again. This cycle is repeated 3 times, reaching 72 hours total, hence the name Kenyan 72-hour fermentation washing method, abbreviated as K72. FrontStreet Coffee believes this processing method allows coffee beans to ferment at low temperatures for extended periods, giving the beans brighter, cleaner, yet fuller flavors!

FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan Small Tomato

The Kenyan coffee beans offered by FrontStreet Coffee come from the Asali processing station in the Thika region, featuring very bright plum acidity, solid mouthfeel, and fruit-sweet flavors reminiscent of small tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, hence the name "Small Tomato."

FrontStreet Coffee: Kenya · Small Tomato Coffee Beans
Region: Thika Region, Kenya - Asali Processing Station
Altitude: 1550-1750 meters
Varieties: SL28, SL34
Processing Method: K72 Washing Process
Flavor Notes: Plum, Cherry Tomato, Snow Pear, Brown Sugar, Plum

Brewing Guide for Light Roast Kenyan Coffee

For brewing light roast coffees like Kenya · Small Tomato, FrontStreet Coffee believes there are three details to pay attention to:

1. Choose Fast-Flow Drippers

Due to the lower expansion of light roast coffee beans and their harder texture, grinding tends to produce very fine particles. During the water pouring stage, these fine particles sink to the bottom first, causing blockages in the final stage. Coffee brewed this way often has weak aroma and muddy mouthfeel. Therefore, it's best to pair with a fast-flow dripper, such as the V60 that FrontStreet Coffee uses most frequently. Its spiral rib design allows coffee grounds to degas better while maximizing the volatilization and dissolution of acidic aromatic compounds. The large bottom filter hole further accelerates water flow.

2. Water Temperature Control

Water temperature should not exceed 93°C or be below 90°C. According to FrontStreet Coffee's brewing experience, if you want the coffee's acidity to be bright and uplifting with a tea-like aftertaste, use 90-91°C for brewing; if you want full, solid fruit acidity and enhanced body, use 92-93°C water temperature.

3. Grind Size Adjustment

Since grind size affects total extraction time, FrontStreet Coffee typically determines whether the grind setting is correct by combining extraction time and coffee taste. It's quite simple: when brewing 15g of coffee using a three-stage pour, if the time is less than 1 minute 40 seconds and the taste is sharply acidic and thin, it means the particles are too coarse and the coffee is under-extracted. If the time exceeds 2 minutes 20 seconds and the coffee is bitter, astringent, and heavy, it's likely ground too fine, causing over-extraction.

Powder-to-Water Ratio and Brewing Technique

As for powder-to-water ratio, FrontStreet Coffee believes 1:15 to 1:16 are both acceptable. If you want the coffee to lean toward oolong tea or berry-like richness, use 1:15. If you want to more clearly experience white floral notes and citrus acidity, you can use 1:16 to allow the flavors to disperse more.

Three-Stage Pouring Method

First stage: Pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom. Start timing when pouring begins. Use a small water flow, pouring from the center point outward in circles, ensuring the entire coffee bed is moistened. After 30 seconds, begin the second stage with a slightly larger, steady water flow to pour 95g of water. The goal is to raise the entire coffee bed. The water stream should be poured vertically and evenly. At this point, the scale shows 125g, and pouring should complete around 55 seconds.

When the liquid level drops to about half, start the third stage by pouring 100g with a small water flow in small circles. Try to control the water flow to not circle too widely, as this can easily scatter the coffee bed and cause under-extraction. The final water amount totals 225g, with the drip completion time around 2 minutes.

First stage: Pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom. Then pour to 125g for the second stage. When the water level drops to where the coffee bed is about to be exposed, begin the third stage pour to 225g. Stop pouring when the water level in the filter cup drops completely to the share pot, then remove the filter cup. Total extraction time: 2'00".

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473