Kenya Nyeri Mahiga - Limited
KENYA NYERI MAHIGA
LIMITED RELEASE PROJECT
Everyone loves a classic cup of coffee. The chocolatey, nutty, and sweet morning cup to get our day on the right track. But sometimes you might wanna branch out a little, try something daring, something weird, something from somewhere you may have never heard of. Something that makes you think, “Wow, I didn’t know coffee could taste like this.” For those of us like that, we who aren’t afraid to venture towards the fringes of the coffee world, Honeybee has started our Limited Release Project. The coffees in this project will be, you guessed it, limited releases. Sometimes very limited releases. Our first coffee on deck will have 50 bags available, in-store only.
So, the first coffee in the project is… drumroll please… a double fermented, double washed Kenya Nyeri Mahiga. This coffee is quite unique and features tasting notes of honey, stone fruit, and chocolate. For those of you who don’t know, during the processing phase coffee can be fermented, either in the open air (aerobic) or submerged in water (anaerobic). In this case, the processing station anaerobically fermented the coffee twice. Fermentation happens naturally and automatically in coffee. All it requires is water and sugar, which coffee cherries have plenty of. Deliberately fermenting coffee in a controlled manner is an entirely different story. Processors have to follow precise recipes to ensure the fermentation doesn’t run wild and ruin the coffee. Unchecked fermentation can result in mildewy and unpleasant flavors. When done right, however, certain flavors become enhanced such as sweetness and acidity. Also, properly fermented coffees are often much more complex than when they started.
NOTES OF CHOCOLATE THROUGHOUT
TASTING NOTES: HONEY, STONEFRUIT, & CHOCOLATE
We chose this coffee to start the Limited Release Project because it seemed like a great place to begin a more advanced coffee education for our customers. Most avid coffee drinkers are familiar with washed vs natural processing, and maybe even honey processing, but fermentation is a rather small niche in the coffee world. It can be risky for processors, expensive for roasters, and exotic for consumers, which makes it perfect for showcasing the furthest reaches of the industry. We also wanted to highlight this coffee because of its cost. Fermentation is time consuming and resource intensive, making the green coffee price much higher than normal. A portion of this higher cost goes to farmers, meaning we get to enjoy unique coffee while farmers at origin are better compensated for their efforts. Admittedly, this is not always true. This coffee, however, was sourced through the Red Cherry Project, which you can read more about here https://royalcoffee.com/product/cj1377/ . The producers that work with the Red Cherry Project are fairly compensated and given a premium for exotic processes.
The following information from Chris Kornman of Royal Coffee (the importer we used for this coffee) should give you a better idea of this coffee’s origin and processing:
“The 400 contributing farmer cooperative members are organized under the station manager, Daniel Kingori, who’s experience also recently included management of the nearby Rukira factory, also a member of the umbrella Othaya Cooperative Society. Mahiga translates to ‘stone,’ and the coffee and processing here are nothing if not rock-solid. Mahiga, in addition to the Red Cherry program participation, has undertaken an especially unique and complex processing model. We’re calling it ‘double fermented and double washed.’ Here’s the details: after pulping (on the factory’s brand new machine), the coffee is fermented underwater for 12 hours. It’s then washed to minimize mucilage and fermented underwater again for 12-36 hours. After this second fermentation, the tank is drained, filled with fresh water and soaked for an additional 16 hours. Lastly, the coffee is cleaned and sorted in grading channels and taken to drying beds for two weeks before delivery to Othaya’s dry mill.”
We hope to continue this project and would gladly listen to any feedback you’d like to offer. If you get a chance to try the Kenya Nyeri we hope it exceeds your expectations, and please stay tuned for Honeybee’s next Limited Release. To stay up to date on future projects from us, subscribe to our email list below.