Bright, clear and unmistakably Kenyan. Gichuka AB comes from the high, cool hills of Kiambu in Central Kenya, where deep volcanic soils and slow cherry development produce coffees with extraordinary clarity and fruit. Expect a bright, structured cup with tasting notes of jammy blackberry and blood orange. There’s plenty of acidity here, but it’s the kind that makes the coffee feel juicy and alive rather than simply sharp. Gichuka exists because acidity is one of the things that makes great coffee exciting. Done well, it brings freshness, definition and that slightly ridiculous moment where you realise your coffee genuinely tastes like fruit. This is the coffee in the range for people who enjoy that moment. Gichuka Factory was established in 1985 near Gatundu and now operates as part of the Kimaratia Farmers’ Cooperative Society, bringing together around 750 smallholder farmers. The area is better known for tea than coffee, but the cool climate, high elevation and generous rainfall create excellent conditions for both. Coffee is harvested across two seasons, with cherries delivered to the factory for processing. Gichuka uses the classic fully washed Kenyan process. Ripe cherries are pulped using fresh water from the Theta River, fermented overnight, washed and soaked before being spread onto raised drying beds. The parchment is regularly turned and carefully sorted as it dries, helping preserve the clean, precise character that makes coffees like this so distinctive. There’s no heavy fermentation or wild processing doing the talking here. What you taste is the combination of variety, altitude, careful farming and very clean processing. For me, this is at its best brewed as filter coffee, where the blackberry sweetness and blood-orange acidity have room to open up as the cup cools. AeroPress works beautifully too, and if you like your coffee black and bright, you’re very much in the right place. Origin: Kiambu, KenyaFactory: Gichuka FactoryProducer: Kimaratia Farmers’ Cooperative SocietyAltitude: 1,800–1,850 maslProcess: Fully washedVarietals: SL28 · SL34 · Ruiru 11 · BatianTasting notes: Jammy · Blackberry · Blood orangeBest for: Filter · AeroPress · Drinking black Available in our Single Origin range
