I love natural process (dried in the fruit) Kenyan coffees and this one is exceptional bursting with ripe red strawberry, pomegranate and tart cherry fruit notes balanced by velvety chocolate and rose. It is a high-intervention natural coffee (aka anaerobic process) from Nyeri, Kenya produced by smallholder farmers associated with the Ndiaini Coffee Factory and the Rumukia Farmer's Cooperative Society. After ripe coffee cherries were picked and delivered to Ndiaini, the central processing site, those coffee cherries were placed in airtight bags for 24-72 hours, and thereafter dried on raised beds for about a month. Botanically, this coffee uses a delightful mix of the famed SL-28 alongside other hardy and high quality cultivars.

SL28 is a well-known cultivar in Africa and has a very good reputation for cup quality and resistance to drought. It does not fare well against major diseases in coffee but for the most part is durable and notable for its rusticity. Scott Agricultural Laboratories initially selected the cultivar from a Tanzanian Bourbon population. 

Ruiru 11 is a unique F1 hybrid, a bit of a Frankenstein coffee. Its parent trees are both complex hybrids, with a short stature Catimor hybrid pollen receiving plant, and the pollen donor a tall hybrid of SL28, SL34, Sudan Rume, K7, N39, the Timor Hybrid, and Bourbon. Ruiru 11 relies on hand pollination for mass propagation, a slow and tedious process that limits production. From the 1980’s until the early 2020’s it was the most widely distributed cultivar in the country, created in response to the 1968 coffee berry disease epidemic. It has a poor reputation with specialty cuppers who expect the flavors and sweetness of SL arabicas, but it is wildly popular with growers for its productivity and resistance. 

Batian is currently the most-planted tree in the country and is well-adapted for small holders due to its resistance to diseases and pests. Developed in response to Ruiru’s poor international reception, it was released in 2010, and is essentially a reformulation of Ruiru, with single tree selections taken from the fifth generation (F5) and released as a composite of three distinct genetic lines. It is an immensely productive tree with early maturation, often achieving full harvest yields by the second or third year after planting.