Artisan Roast - Ndimaini Peaberry - Kenya

From Artisan Roast:

"Ndimaini factory is one of five secondary processing units that form the larger Gikanda FCS Society based out of Karatina town, right in the heart of the quality Nyeri coffee growing area. The farmer small holdings that supply this factory are spread around the town of Karatina in east Marithra, which nestles between the imposing Mount Kenya and bustling regional centre of Nyeri. As is common throughout Kenya, most producers in the co-operative own a few hundred coffee trees and they deliver ripe red cherry from these trees into a central co-operative washing station, like Ndimaini, for further processing.

This selection is a peaberry, and this round bean often has a more pronouced sweetness when compared to more conventional grades of coffee. Peaberries are essentially an aborted seed on the coffee tree but often yield a cup profile with more balance than the standard grades. This is particularly true of Kenya where the higher perceived sweetness brings the acidity into harmony. This coffee from Ndimia-imi is no exception and its classic combination of dominant grapefruit, and underlying brown sugar flavour is balanced so well with intense blackcurrant flavours.

We have roasted this coffee light to preserve the intense citric, apple like and phosphoric acidity. Flavours are many - for us the stand out ones are fresh zesty grapefruits, blackcurrant, cranberry and a sweet, syrupy melon finish. A viscous caramel like flavour runs through this coffee too bringing a delicious sweetness to balance the acidity."