AA Githembe / Kenya

Coffee from Githembe Factory is produced from cherries brought in by around 1,500 smallholder households living nearby, each harvesting their own plots. A typical household grows around 250 coffee trees on less than one hectare of land. Rather than a coffee bearing the name of a particular farm or producer, this is a single lot created by an entire community.

What makes Kenya's cooperative system interesting is how cherries gathered from so many different plots are brought together into a consistent quality through sorting at intake and the processing that follows. Githembe's cup reflects this collective effort.

Githembe is operated by Thiririka Farmers Cooperative Society. The cooperative has three factories—Kiganjo, Ndundu, and Githembe—with its headquarters at Kiganjo. It is said to be one of the largest cooperatives in Kiambu County. Around 2,400 farmers are registered with the cooperative, of whom approximately 1,500 deliver cherries to Githembe.

The cooperative takes its name from the Thiririka River, which flows through the area. Kiganjo Factory reportedly uses water drawn from this river to wash its coffee.

Githembe Factory is said to have been built in 1969. Its current factory manager reportedly spent around 15 years managing Ndundu Factory before taking on this role.

Kiambu County borders Nairobi, the capital, to the north. Gatundu, the town where Githembe is located, is approximately 27km from the capital in a straight line. Within driving distance of Nairobi, coffee-growing areas extend across elevations of 1,600–1,800m.

This proximity to Nairobi is now having a major impact on the region. As the metropolitan area expands, coffee fields have been replaced by property developments. Between 1986 and 2014, farmland in Kiambu County reportedly decreased by around 30%, while built-up areas increased by more than 40%. Kenya's Coffee Research Institute (CRI) has also warned about the conversion of farmland into housing. Along Thika Road, where extensive coffee estates once stood, commercial buildings and apartments now line the landscape.

With land also being divided each time it is inherited, the area farmed by each household has shrunk to less than one acre. The scale described in §1—"250 trees on less than one hectare"—forms part of this trend. Despite these circumstances, 1,500 farming households continue to grow coffee here.

The soil is red clay, rich in nutrients and organic matter. The area around the factory is said to have an average annual temperature of approximately 20.5°C and annual rainfall of around 1,400mm.

Four varieties are grown at Githembe: SL28, SL34, Batian, and Ruiru 11. The farmers reportedly use seeds certified by Kenya's Coffee Research Institute (CRI) for all four.

SL28 and SL34 were selected by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in the 1930s and have helped define the distinctive acidity associated with Kenyan coffee. Both, however, are vulnerable to disease, and SL28 is known to be highly susceptible to both coffee berry disease (CBD) and coffee leaf rust.

Batian and Ruiru 11 were developed in response to these diseases. Ruiru 11 was released in 1985, emerging from a breeding program established after the 1968 CBD epidemic caused Kenya to lose half its production. Batian is more recent, having been released in 2010 [FACT: World Coffee Research]. We also found a description of Ruiru 11 being grafted onto SL28 at Githembe. The idea, presumably, is to use a disease-resistant variety for the roots while obtaining flavor from the above-ground growth.

We purchase this coffee through Nordic Approach, a green coffee importer based in Oslo. Ibero Kenya handles the export on the Kenyan side. This is our third time buying coffee from Githembe.

Kenyan coffee has a distinct place in Fuglen's lineup. Its intense fruit flavors and vivid character are qualities that coffees from other origins cannot replace. Arriving each year in early summer, it is also a coffee that signals the beginning of summer for us.

Kenya has two harvest seasons each year: the main crop from October to December and the fly crop from May to July. We always purchase the main crop, which becomes available around January to April of the following year.

Farmers harvest only ripe cherries by hand and bring them to the factory. On arrival, the cherries are spread out on sheets in the sorting shed and sorted by hand to ensure they meet the factory's standards. Intake staff supervise this stage to check that sorting is carried out correctly.

The sorted cherries pass through a pulper, which removes the outer skin and leaves the coffee in parchment—the beans still enclosed in their endocarp. At this stage, the parchment is covered in a sticky layer called mucilage. Mucilage consists mostly of water, along with sugars and pectin, the polysaccharide responsible for the sticky texture of fruit. The way this layer is broken down is said to affect the coffee's sweetness and acidity.

At Githembe, the parchment is placed in tanks without added water and fermented for around 16–24 hours. Microorganisms present on the cherries and in the surrounding environment break down the mucilage. After fermentation, the parchment is washed and transferred to another tank filled with clean water drawn from the river, where it soaks for around 16–18 hours. This soaking stage is characteristic of Kenyan washed processing and is said to wash away fermentation by-products, helping produce a clean cup.

In the washing channels, the parchment is separated by density into P1, P2, P3, and PL (P Light). P1 is the densest, with each subsequent category becoming lighter. P1 goes through every stage from fermentation to soaking, while the lighter P3 skips some stages and goes directly to drying.

For the past few years, Githembe's parchment has been dried at Kiganjo Factory, which belongs to the same cooperative. Coffee theft has occurred in the area, and the cooperative reportedly introduced this measure to manage its coffee together in one location.

Theft is not limited to Githembe. Another cooperative in Gatundu South experienced an incident in which 100 bags of parchment were stolen, and organized coffee theft has been reported as a problem across Kenya. It is one of the challenges facing the producing region.

Once ready for drying, the parchment, with a moisture content of approximately 55%, is first moved to mesh-covered skin-drying beds. Here, surface moisture is removed over six hours to one day, bringing the moisture content down to around 45%. It is then transferred to raised drying tables known as African beds, where it dries slowly. Plastic sheets protect it from strong daytime sunlight and at night. Drying usually takes around 7–14 days, although it can take approximately 21 days depending on the weather.