This is one of the best coffee lots we found during our trip to Kenya in March this year. We tasted the coffee several times during our week in Kenya and every time it came out as one of the best coffees on the table with it’s intense black currant aroma. Our exporter had allready bought the coffee on the Kenyan coffee auction for only USD 180 per 50 kg. of green coffee. This is about USD 40,- below the fair trade price and a very low price for a coffee of this high quality.  Since our exporter had allready sendt offer samples to highly renowned roasteries around the world, we decided to buy the lot immediately without tasting it back in Norway under known conditions, which is normally what we would do. To make sure they wanted to sell it to us, we offered USD 400,- per 50 kg, 220 USD above the price they had payed but on the condition that all the extra money went directly to the Cooperative. The exporter agreed and  that is how one of the best coffees coming out of kenya in 2009 became ours. We also payed the cooperative a visit during our trip and was very happy to see that they have a computer with internet access which means it will be a lot easier to communicate with them in order to establish a possible long term cooperation for the future.

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. 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 .

Problems:
The cooperative and the farmers struggle with low prices and high production costs due to a lot of leaf rust and coffee berry disease. They also need funds in order to improve their drying tables, de-pulping machines and parchment storage facilities. Hopefully the premium price we payed for their coffee this year will help a little bit, but our goal is to try to establish a long term relationship with the cooperative in order to help them improve so that we can buy consistent quality coffee for a sustainable price in the future.

Info:
Cooperative: Tekangu FCS
Lot size: 1140 kg
Producer: Several smallholders
Harvest: December 08/ January 09
Origin: Kirimukuyu, Nyeri, Kenya.
Growing conditions: 1770 m.a.s. in red vulcanic 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 good coffee cherries are separated from the inferior ones by hand. Then the cherries are depulped, the beans are fermented and washed before they get dried on african elevated drying tables. The coffee was vacuum packed prior to being shipped to Norway.

Taste description:
Aroma: Intens smell of black currants and blackberries.
Acidity: Refreshing and lively rose hip- like acidity.
Mouthfeel: Clean and juicy. Firm and refreshing finish.
Flavour: Clean and juicy coffee with intense black currant flavours. Winey structure with flavours of rose hips, citrus and some floral notes as it cools.

Below is a slideshow from our Trip to kenya in 2009. You can also see a video from the trip here.