Kenya Kathima AB

Highlights

“Kathima is a washing station in Manyata, Embu County, on the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya. It belongs to the Thambana Farmers Cooperative Society, and about 2,200 of the co-op's 4,500 members deliver cherry there — smallholders averaging around 250 trees each, picking by hand at peak ripeness. The farms sit between 1,600 and 1,800 metres on red volcanic soil, growing SL28 and SL34 alongside the hardier Ruiru 11. Cherry is sorted, pulped, fermented and washed, then soaked in clean water before drying slowly on raised beds — the extra soak is a big part of why good Kenyans taste this clean. In the cup it is dark fruit all the way: blackberry and fig, jammy and sweet, held up by Kenya's bright acidity. Demitasse brought five cartons into Los Angeles; when they are gone, they are gone.”