Kenya AA Coffee

In our opinion this is one of the best coffees there is! AA generally designates the largest bean size, which is considered by many to be a sign of quality.

Coffee growing in Kenya started in the late 1890s/1900s there are two claims as to its introduction from either the British colonials, or the French Holy Ghost Fathers (who are said to have brought the beans from Reunion Island to Kenya with newly freed slaves from Reunion).

Today Kenyan Coffee production is defined by its co-operative system. Approximately 70% of coffee from Kenya is grown by what can be described as small-holders.

There are many projections of how many are involved in coffee production in Kenya and these range from 2-6 million. Having spoken with our esteemed contacts in Kenya (Messrs Jowan Limited) it is clear that the co-operative system of small to medium sized farms works very well for consistently producing high quality, briskly flavoured coffees. The soils in the Kenyan highlands around Mount Kenya, Nakuru, Kericho, Nynza, Kisili and the Abedare range, have acidic soil, good rainfall and appropriate levels of sunlight (although shade trees are a must).

Production of coffee in Kenya is recovering after production levels fell due to property booms in the above growing areas and the dreadful price instability that coffee went through in the late 80s until 2006/7. The banding together of small-holders into co-operatives are what has fuelled this recovery in the main and small-holders at last have a louder voice and Kenyan Coffee prices across the board are higher than those from other African nations as a rule. Kenyan coffee is produced and milled into strict classifications of types, these take in the form of one or two letters. The coffee is screened using precisely machined screens based on 64ths of an inch (17/64 or 18/64 of an inch).

The classifications are as follows:

E – Kenyan Elephant grade. This is the largest bean and is very similar to Maragogype grade from Latin America

Kenyan AA – the most, well-formed normal sized beans (screen 17/18) and fetches the highest price offered and consistently best flavours. Our Kenya AA consists of SL34 and SL28 varietals and is sourced mainly from Kirinyaga and are grown between 12 & 1500 meters above sea level.

Kenyan AB – this grade is usually a screen 15/16 and is used very widely in blends to improve flavour, body and acidity levels. Kenya AB is classed as a ‰’generic’‰ coffee following the same production model as Brazilian Santos Coffee, Colombian Medellin Excelso and Ethiopian Mocha Djimmah Coffee.

PB (Peaberry) – read about our Kenya Peaberry Coffee here.

There are other grades, for example, C, TT, MH and ML but these are made using thin, light and faulty beans or even beans that have simply fallen from the bush due to the very late picking. We do not purchase any of these grades and always sell our Kenyan coffees by their classification.

Kenyan Blue Mountain Coffee is an AA grade which comes from high altitude plantations on Mount Elgon giving it a delightful variance in flavour, compared to other high quality AA grades grown in different areas of Kenya.