Coffee Description
This Kenyan Peaberry combines the SL-28 variety with high altitude, double fermentation, and raised-bed-drying in an incredibly juicy coffee featuring the clean phosphoric acidity unique to the region. Orange rind and butterscotch blend with notes of lavender and raisin in this sweet and piquant cup.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Medium
Variety
SL28
Process
Washed
Elevation
1900 masl
Region
Nyeri
About Barichu Farmers Cooperative Society of Kenya
Coffee farmers in the Karatina area are mostly smallholders whose average plots are a half hectare (1.2 acres) and between 250-300 trees. The co-op owns four collection/processing stations or “factories” including Karindundu, which is located just outside the town of Karatina. Most farmers who bring their coffees to this station are within a couple of kilometers distance, and deliver their lots on foot.
Once at the station, the fruit is hand sorted, then weighed and piled into a huge concrete hopper. A disc depulper separates the seeds from the fruit and funnels the beans to a fermentation tank where they are dry fermented (no added water) for several hours before being rinsed and soaked until clean. The parchment-covered seeds are then dried on elevated tables for this stellar example of a Kenya Nyeri coffee.
Nyeri, Kenya
Onyx Coffee Lab
Lest the myth perpetuate that specialty coffee does not come from Arkansas, Onyx Coffee Lab is blowing that particular urban legend out of the water while creating a few of their own. Husband-wife owners Jon and Andrea Allen have rapidly taken the coffee world by storm with their combination of art and science.
The magic starts with sourcing, with countless small sample batches from coffee importers and with direct visits to farms around the world. "I know direct trade means a lot of different things to different people, but for us if we don’t put money in the producers hands we won’t call it direct trade," says Jon. Once found, the coffees are carefully roasted in twenty-pound or smaller batches, then shared with the three Onyx cafés and over 150 wholesale customers in thirty states.
Clearly Onyx Coffee Lab knows what they're doing: this northwest Arkansas matrix of coffee know-how routinely cleans house at the U.S. Coffee Championships; Andrea Allen placed first in the 2020 Barista Championship, while Elika Liftee placed first in the 2020 Brewers Cup Championship, and they both went on to the 2021 World Coffee Championships to place in 2nd place for Barista and 3rd place for Brewers Cup. Onyx has been chosen by Architectural Digest as Arkansas' most beautiful coffee shop, garnered multiple Good Food Awards, and been described as the "Best bags of coffee you can buy online" in GQ.
