Kenya Kiambu Ruera Factory AA Natural

Tasting Note:  Elderflower | Pineapple | Passion Fruit | Blood Orange

 Size:  200g/1kg

Brewing Recommendation: Filter Brews / Modern Espresso 

Kenya Kiambu Ruera Factory AA Natural is a dry-processed Kenyan in a country that washes almost everything, so the cup lands tropical and floral instead of the usual bright Kenyan snap.

In the cup

Think tropical fruit salad with flowers on top. Passion fruit leads, pineapple and blood orange fill in underneath, and elderflower drifts around the edges. It's a long way from the crisp blackcurrant-and-citrus profile most people expect from Kenya, and that contrast is the whole point of this lot.

Why a natural Kenyan is so unusual

Kenya is washed-coffee country, almost by law. Nearly every cherry is delivered to a "factory" (the local word for a washing station) for wet processing, and it's actually illegal to buy unprocessed parchment straight from farmers. Leaving the whole cherry to ferment and dry on the bean, the way naturals are made, is a recent and still uncommon move here. That's what makes this one worth a detour.

The varietals

This is SL28, the famous Kenyan workhorse selected back in 1935 for its standout cup at altitude (gorgeous in the glass, but low-yielding and a magnet for disease), blended with Ruiru 11, a hardy Kenyan-bred hybrid released in 1985 to shrug off leaf rust and Coffee Berry Disease. Think of Ruiru 11 as the tough, practical sibling planted to keep the trees healthy.

The AA on the label, by the way, is Kenya's top size grade: it measures how big the beans are, not how good they taste.

Interested? Add a bag to your cart and taste a Kenyan that breaks its own country's rules: passion fruit and flowers where you'd expect the usual bright snap.