Gakundu Embu

Gakundu AA — Kenya, Embu Washed | SL28, SL34, Batian, Ruiru 11 | 1650m

Tasting Notes Cooked currant and jammy plum with a caramel finish. Juicy malic acidity and candy-like sweetness — the kind of cup that's unmistakably Kenyan.

Some coffees taste like a place. This one tastes like the foothills of Mount Kenya — rich red soil, two rainy seasons, and a cooperative of smallholder farmers who have been growing coffee here for generations.

Gakundu Farmers' Co-operative Society sits in Embu County, just northeast of Nairobi, at 1,650 metres above sea level. The region is threaded by six rivers and shaped by a farming culture where 80% of households work the land. Most growers here tend less than half a hectare, delivering their cherries daily to the Gakundu factory — a central processing station where the lot is sorted, pulped, fermented, washed, and dried on raised beds.

The AA grade refers to screen size — the largest, densest beans — selected from a blend of Kenya's most celebrated varieties: SL28 and SL34 for their blackcurrant intensity and bright acidity, Ruiru 11 for disease resistance and body, and Batian for high-altitude adaptability.

The cooperative goes beyond coffee. Members receive pre-financing for school fees and farm inputs, while Coffee Management Services supports long-term farmer training in sustainable agriculture. This is coffee grown by people invested in what they're building.

In the Cup A classic washed Kenyan with depth and sweetness in equal measure. Beautiful as a pourover or Aeropress. Brews bright and complex — stunning cold.