Kamundu AB

An exciting opportunity to taste a sweet, fruity Kenyan offering as espresso from a lot of exclusively SL34 cultivar. 

This lot was grown in Kiambu county in Kenya’s, just north of the capital Nairobi, at an altitude of 1,950 metres. The soils are typical to what we experience in Kenya, being rich, red, volcanic and fertile. What is atypical for us purchasing this coffee is that it is an estate-grown coffee, rather than a communally grown lot processed at a central washing station, or factory. Also unusual is that rather than a combination of cultivars we are tasting here just a single variety, SL34. 

In the 1930s Scotts Labs developed and identified the famed cultivars, SL28 ad SL34, that Kenya’s reputation for quality has been built upon. SL34 derived from a single tree selection growing on the Loresho Estate in the Kiambu region, know then as ‘Kabete’, with a Typica lineage.

The operation at Kamundu is overseen by Sasini estates, representing a group that specialise in various agricultural crops such as macadamia nuts, avocados and coffee. As well as Kamundu they are growing coffee on Doondu, Thika, Tinganga, Gulmarg, Kakindu and Ruiri Mills farms. 

They delineate between the primary harvest running from December through to March, and a fly crop harvest from May-July. After hand harvesting the coffee cherries, they are sorted through to remove any defective fruit, traditionally depulped and fermented before undergoing washing and grading in channels. They are soaked in clean water to homogenise and stabilise the coffee before being put out to sun dry on raised beds. 

Not only are the group dedicated to responsible governance and operations by adhering to strict certification policies and best practices (for example they are both RFA nad UTZ certified) they go beyond this in supporting the local community. They support education infrastructures, maintaining daycare facilities for the youngest children, four primary schools and a single secondary school, as well as running a medical health clinic. Workers on their coffee farms a provided living quarters and access to the educational and medical facilities, as well as membership in a trade union and over minimum wage pay.