MAHIGA AA, Fully Washed

In Kenya, most coffee is traded through the national auction system. Marketing agents enter coffee from cooperatives and estates, and traders bid on these lots. Large multinationals are the primary buyers, who then sell to importers and roasters. For a long time, this has been the only purchasing method available, creating frustration due to a lack of transparency, poor service, and price volatility.

This particular lot was purchased from Falcon Specialty, who have developed a more direct approach. They work with a local Kenyan company that bids on their behalf after cupping auction samples pre-filtered by a local specialist. This approach supports local Kenyan businesses while making the supply chain more efficient. It represents the first step in Falcon's plan to address transparency issues in Kenya, with the ultimate goal of bypassing the auction system entirely by working directly with farmers associations, cooperatives, and small estates.

Mt. Kenya dominates Kenya's Central Province as Africa's second tallest peak and an imposing natural landmark. The mountain sits within an expansive national forest with active wildlife protection areas. Kenya's central counties radiate from the centre of the national park like six uneven pie slices, all meeting at the mountain's peak. Many experts believe the world's finest coffees come from the lower edges of these forests, where wet, high-elevation communities with volcanic, mineral-rich soil create ideal growing conditions. Nyeri is arguably the most renowned of these central counties. Coffee production in Kenya operates primarily through a cooperative system, where members vote on representation, marketing, milling contracts, and profit distribution. The Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society is one of Kenya's larger cooperatives, encompassing 19 different factories and over 14,000 farmer members throughout the southern Nyeri region.

The Mahiga Factory has 400 members who actively harvest and deliver to the processing center. The factory's total cherry intake typically hovers around 130,000 kg, meaning the average Mahiga member farms enough coffee fruit for roughly two 30kg units of exportable green coffee.

Smallholder economics are consistently challenging, especially in Kenya where numerous individual margins are taken from the export price before payment reaches the farms. This leaves only a small percentage to support coffee production, and payments often arrive many months after harvest. Despite these challenges, Kenya coffees are sold competitively based on quality. Well-established counties like Nyeri achieve consistently high average prices year after year. The smallholders here, with just a few hundred coffee trees at most, plus access to additional land uses and local job markets, are widely considered middle class.

Kenya is renowned for some of the most meticulous large-scale processing found anywhere in the world. Bright white parchment, nearly perfectly sorted by density and bulk-conditioned at high elevations is the norm and a matter of pride—even for generations of Kenyan processing managers who prefer drinking Kenya's tea (abundantly farmed in nearby Muranga county) to its coffee.

Ample water supply in the central growing regions has historically allowed factories to repeatedly wash and soak their coffees with fresh, cold river water. Conservation is gradually entering the conversation in certain areas, understandably in drier regions where water, due to climate change, can no longer be taken for granted. However, most Kenyan processors continue to thoroughly wash and soak their coffees according to tradition. The established practice of milling and sorting by grade (bean size) is a longstanding tradition that positions Kenyan coffees well for roasters by tightly controlling physical preparation and creating diverse profiles from a single processing batch.

SL28 is one of Africa's most renowned and esteemed coffee varieties. Scott Laboratories originally selected it in the 1930s from a drought-resistant population in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The initial tree caught attention due to its resistance to both drought and disease. SL28 was then developed through pedigree selection—a breeding method where ancestry records are meticulously maintained. In this process, selected parent plants are crossed, and their offspring are carefully segregated. Seeds from plants displaying desired traits are chosen and grown over several generations until the characteristics stabilize.

Initially widespread in Kenya, SL28 has since expanded to other African regions and even Latin America. Recent genetic studies have linked SL28 to the Bourbon genetic group. It's highly valued for its superb cup quality, especially when grown at high altitudes. While SL28 is drought-tolerant, it remains susceptible to major diseases. Remarkably, it's known for its resilience to minimal plantation management—even 60-year-old, neglected trees can remain highly productive.

SL34 was originally selected in Kenya in the late 1930s at the Scott Agricultural Laboratories. The variety was selected from a single tree on the Loresho Estate in Kabete, Kenya, as research at Scott Laboratories was often conducted in cooperation with local, private estate owners. The tree was labelled "French Mission."

French missionaries known as Spiritans established a mission in 1893 at Bura (Taita Hills, Kenya), where they planted Bourbon coffee seeds from La Réunion island. Seedlings from Bura were brought to another French Mission in Saint Austin (near Nairobi) in 1899, and from there seeds were distributed to settlers willing to grow coffee. This is the origin of "French Mission" coffee.

Because coffee seeds came directly from La Réunion via French missionaries, French Mission is widely understood to be another name for Bourbon. However, recent genetic tests have indicated that SL34 is related to the Typica genetic group, suggesting the original story about SL34 being selected from a French Mission population might be incorrect.

SL34 is adapted to high-altitude areas with good rainfall. It is characterized by dark bronze-tipped plants with some green-tipped strains. It's well-known for its exceptional cup quality but is highly susceptible to coffee berry disease.

The washed process was designed to minimize the risk of off-flavours caused by uncontrolled fermentation during the natural process. Cherries are typically sorted using a flotation tank, where under-ripe or defective fruits float to the top and can be removed. The remaining cherries are then pulped and left in a tank to ferment until the sticky fruit mucilage is soft enough to be washed off the parchment—a paper-like layer surrounding the seed.

The design and cleanliness of the tanks used for fermentation are crucial, and the type, degree and speed of microbial activity depends on various factors. These include the amount of fruit remaining, the presence of bacteria and yeasts, whether the tank is filled with water, and the environmental conditions.

Once the mucilage has sufficiently degraded, it's washed away with water. The remaining parchment coffee, as it's commonly called, is then dried until it reaches a safe moisture content. The bacteria-rich and sugary water used in the process must be treated carefully, as it can cause algae blooms if it enters streams and rivers.

In situations where large amounts of coffee are processed in bulk, such as in Ethiopia, some operations have found it economical to use a mechanical demucilager. This device removes all the fruit from the parchment with minimal water, bypassing the fermentation stage entirely. However, some believe this leads to a reduction in cup quality, as many flavour precursors are created through fermentation.