Ethiopia is the genetic origin of Arabica, and coffee has been cultivated across its highlands for centuries, with indigenous heirloom varieties still forming the backbone of production today. Kenya's coffee story is much younger. Introduced in the late 19th century, its industry developed into a distinct tradition centred around cooperative mills, meticulous washed processing, and a small number of carefully selected varieties, most famously SL28.

For this month's subscription, we have chosen two coffees that offer contrasting expressions of East African coffee: a natural from the highlands of Sidama, Ethiopia, and a washed lot from the slopes of Mount Kenya. Both are rooted in smallholder cultivation and shaped by the altitude, soils, varieties, and people of their respective regions. Though the two countries are neighbors, they each represent a distinct tradition in flavor, farming, and coffee culture.

Huro Tibro

Since purchasing his farm in 2017, Solomon Hameso Boku has built a growing coffee operation in Bensa-Huro Tibro. A first-generation coffee producer and processor, he combines farming on his own land with dry processing services for around 200 producers who deliver cherry to his stations. Beyond Bensa-Huro Tibro he runs three other sites: Aroresa, Kokose and his newest location, Dembi.

Solomon grows coffee organically, though the cost of official certification has kept him from pursuing it. His farm is covered with a thick layer of compost, with established coffee trees growing alongside younger plants that are already bearing fruit. In keeping with Ethiopia’s strong culture of giving back to the community, Solomon and his son support those around them by employing more than 24 women at the farm and dry mill, providing financial support to elderly community members, and supplying local farmers with high-yielding young coffee plants.

For this lot, ripe cherries are delivered to Solomon’s processing site, where they are dried on raised beds and hand-sorted for defects. During the hottest hours of the day, the cherries are covered to slow the drying process. Once the target moisture level is reached, the coffee is stored as Jemfel, still in cherry, before being hulled onsite and sent to Addis Ababa.

Bensa-Huro Tibro sits between 1,950 and 1,990 masl, with clay soils and around 1,400 mm of annual rainfall. Coffee grows here under the shade of local trees such as Wanza, Girar, and Weyira. This lot is composed of the Ethiopian heirloom varieties 74/112 and 74/110, expressing mild florals, ripe stone fruit including peach, nectarine and grapefruit, alongside notes of raisin and white tea.

Kii

The small region in Kirinyaga that the Kii mill serves, surrounding the village of Ngariama, is mainly a tea-growing area, so most of the coffee plant stock is rather new. The region is known for very high quality of both tea and coffee; being planted somewhat later than neighbouring regions means soils haven’t been tired out by years of conventional agriculture, with its sprays and chemical fertiliser. We have visited the region several times, most recently in February of this year. Here, it is clear to witness the density of both coffee and tea plantation in the lush green landscape, enabled by the rich volcanic soils, relatively undisturbed by intensive conventional agriculture. North Eastern Kirinyaga is home to some of our favourite Kenyan coffees; Kii is run by the Rungeto Farmer’s Cooperative Society, who also own the Karimikui and Kiangoi stations, where we have purchased several lots in the past.

This lot from Kii has a bright character reminiscent of fresh redcurrant, balanced by the richness of black tea and molasses.

Rungeto FCS

The Rungeto cooperative is very professionally run; their cherry selection, fermentation, sorting and separation is of incredibly high quality, leading to excellent coffee. The cherries are first de-pulped mechanically, as soon as they arrive at the factory. The cherries should arrive for de-pulping as soon as possible after picking, hence why cooperatives make a great effort to have factories located close to concentrations of smallholders. After de-pulping, the seeds are covered in a layer of sticky fruity pulp, or mucilage. The mucilage is fermented in large tanks for between 12 and 24 hours, breaking it down to a point that it can be thoroughly ‘washed’ from the seeds, using long washing channels.

Then, before drying, the cherries are taken to another set of fermentation tanks, and fermented again under water, normally for a shorter time, between 10 and 12 hours. This ‘double soak’ is popular in Kenya, and is useful not only for enhancing the cleanliness and intensity of the final cup, but also as a second opportunity to sort for lower density floating seeds, as these are often of lower quality, or from unripe cherries.

A taste of East Africa

Together, these coffees offer just a glimpse of the diversity found across East Africa. Different in origin, variety, and processing, they share a common foundation in high-altitude coffee growing and the work of the smallholder producers who make these distinctive coffees possible.