Kii

The Kii washing station is located in Kirinyaga county on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, a short distance away from its sister washing stations, Kiangoi and Karimikui. It was established in 1995 to serve the neighbouring villages, and gets its name from the nearby Kii river that provides a consistent supply of fresh water. Just like its esteemed siblings, Kii has established a reputation for producing some of Kenya’s most consistently high-quality, complex and flavour-dense coffees.

On delivery the coffee is pulped, and graded into three densities. Grades 1 and 2 are considered higher quality, and are dry-fermented separately from the Grade 3 for 18-36 hours in concrete tanks under shade. The coffee is then washed, and further graded by density in washing channels, before being sun-dried on raised beds for 12 to 20 days. At the dry mill the coffee is then sorted again by size, this lot representing the AB separation of beans larger than 6.8 mm in diameter.

We selected this coffee at Nordic Approach’s last Spring Cupping in Oslo. Nordic Approach is a coffee importer based in Norway that has a reputation for importing some of the best Kenyan coffees around. Their Spring Cupping is the first chance to taste fresh crop coffees from Kenya, so we made the journey to Oslo determined to secure some of the season’s best lots. By happy accident, from a blind cupping of around 20 Kenyan coffees, all the coffees we selected were from washing stations operated by Rungeto - Karimikui, Kiangoi and Kii.

With this release from Kii, we’re thrilled to have showcased coffee from all three Rungeto stations this season, and we hope to revisit them regularly over the coming years.