BEAN INFORMATION
The classic Kenya cup profile is high in acidity, refined, juicy and often associated with black currant style flavours. With processing methods expanding from exclusively washed to now including natural processing, as well as Project Origin’s Supernatural and CM processes, you can expect wonderful variations on the profiles you have come to love. Coffee in Kenya is produced by smallholders that sell to washing stations, estates and co-operatives. Green coffee is graded based on screen size with AA being largest followed by AB and so on. Project Origin has two different collaborative processing partners in Kenya; Thageini washing station and Maguta Estate, both located in Nyeri County. With these partners we create CM Selections and Supernatural coffees and use part of the proceeds from selling these coffees to invest in the local community, improving quality of life for washing station workers, coffee growers and their families.
The Process
The carbonic maceration process uses cherries that are picked perfectly ripe, are hand-sorted, and floated to remove over-ripe and under-ripe cherries. The washed CM Selections coffees (CMW) are pulped before being placed in temperature and humidity-controlled tanks flushed with carbon dioxide (CO2) to remove all oxygen (O2) from the tank. After fermentation, the coffee is dried on raised beds for 12-18 days before being stored and milled. Our natural CM Selections (CMN) are placed in the tanks still in whole cherries. After fermentation, the natural coffee is dried on raised beds for 30 days or more before being stored and milled. It is this time in controlled tanks filled with CO2 that creates the CM Selections profiles.