For the 3rd year in a row the coffee from Tekangu Coop Society stood out as a clear winner among the hundreds of coffees we tasted in Kenya during our visit in January 2011. We have visited Tekangu several times and in November 2010 we invested in 8 new drying tables made of steel to be placed on the Karogoto factory in order to make sure we get more of this delicious coffee in the future.
The money for this was raised by our customers at our 3 year anniversary.

About the cooperative
Tekangu is a small cooperative with 910 members that are so called “small holder farmers” posessing about 1 hectar of land each where they grow maize, banana, coffee and other crops.
The cooperative consists of 3 factories, Tegu, Ngunguru and Karagoto where the coffee is collected, depulped, washed, fermented and dried. In 2009 we bought a lot that was produced by the Tegu factory and in 2010 and this year the coffee was processed on the Karogoto factory.

Tekangu is a well developed cooperative that focuses on producing quality coffee and get high prices for this coffee in order to improve the quality of life of it’s members.   They provide credits for their farmers in order for them to pay for farm input and paying school fees for their children throughout the year. The members are trained on a regular basis in sustainable farming practices and also in how to handle and apply pesticides, etc.

The members are provided with documentation about how much their coffee was sold for so that they know how much money they can expect for the coffee they delivered to the cooperative. In addition the coop’s marketing agent provides us and the farmers with documents on all money transfers so that all transactions are made rightfully according to the law. This is important as Kenya is struggelign with corruption which has lead to farmes not always getting payed what is rightfully their money, and although we bought the coffee directly from the Coop, it is good to know that the money goes to the rightful owner even though we have bought the coffee directly from the cooperative this year.

Info:

Cooperative: Tekangu FCS
Processing factory: Karogoto
Lot size: 3960 kg
Producer: Several smallholders
Harvest: December 2010
Origin: Kirimukuyu, Nyeri, Kenya.
Growing conditions: 1700-1800 msl. in red volcanic soil. Trees like
Gravellea, Macadamia and Eukalyptus are used to give shade for the coffee trees.
Botanical variety: SL 28 & SL 34
Process: The coffee is hand picked by the farmers and their families. After delivering the coffee to the different factories the best farmers (categorized as A-farmers) coffee is separated from the B-farmers to ensure better quality. Then the good coffee cherries are separated from the inferior ones. The cherries are depulped, the beans are fermented and washed before they get dried on african elevated drying tables.

Taste description:
Aromas of rose hips, red berries and flowers.
Crisp berrylike acidity.
Slim and elegant mouthfeel. Super clean and transparent.
Intense flavours of rose hips and flowers. Refreshing and sweet finish.

You can buy this coffee in our  webshop.

Below is a slideshow from our Trips to kenya in 2010 and one from our 2009 trip on the bottom.
Click on full screen then on “show info” to get comments on the pictures.