Meet the growers behind our Kirinyaga lot

The Kirinyaga lot we have been buying for four seasons comes from a washing station that serves around 340 smallholder farms, most of them under a hectare. Cherry is delivered the same day it is picked, floated to remove the underripe fruit, and fermented overnight before washing.

Why the processing matters here

That overnight ferment and the long soak afterwards are what give the cup its clarity. The blackcurrant note everybody comments on is not an additive or a roasting trick; it is what SL-28 does when the fruit is picked ripe and the water is clean.

What we pay

We publish the farmgate price we paid alongside the C-market price for the same week, because "direct trade" means nothing on its own. This season we paid roughly 2.4 times the market rate, and the premium went to the station rather than through an exporter.

Transparency is a number, not an adjective. If a roaster will not tell you what they paid, assume it was the going rate.