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Batian/Ruiru - Gatina Nyeri - Kenya
Batian/Ruiru - Gatina Nyeri - Kenya
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Batian/Ruiru - Washed - Gatina
Gatina Washing Station sits a few kilometers outside the town of Karatina in Nyeri County. The station was built in 1968, nestled between the western slopes of Mt. Kenya and the eastern slopes of the Aberdares mountains. It is managed by Mugaga Farmers’ Cooperative Society. Today, the station receives cherry from 790 members. Of those, 280 — over 30% — are women.
The 790 members of Gatina station cultivate a total of 142 hectares. This breaks down to about a tenth of a hectare—or a few hundred trees—per farmer. Such small coffee ‘gardens’ makes it possible, vital even, to focus on specialty processing and increase the value per kilogram of cherry picked. Farm labor is usually entirely provided by family members, which can often make maintaining specialty cultivation and picking practices easier. Many of the farmers also grow tea, maize and legumes to consume or sell at local markets for additional cash income.
The Process Unveiled:
- Cherries are hand-sorted at intake, with damaged, overripe, and underripe cherries removed.
- The cherry clerk's role is critical to ensure only the ripest cherries are processed.
- Cherries are pulped using a three-disc pulper and then fermented overnight.
- Water used for pulping and fermentation is sourced from fresh rivers near Mt. Kenya and the Aberdares Mountains.
- After fermentation, the coffee is washed, soaked, and then spread out to dry on raised beds for 7 to 15 days.
- During drying, parchment is turned often for even drying and covered during the hottest part of the day to maintain stable temperatures.
- Once dry, parchment is taken to Kahawa Bora Millers, a sister company in Kenya.
- The mill mills smaller lots separately to maintain quality and traceability.
Details
Delivery
We roast our coffee every Tuesday and Wednesday. If you're planning a large order, please reach out to us first.
For UK-based customers, enjoy free delivery on orders over £30. And for our international friends, we're offering free shipping on orders over £150.
In the UK, we ship with Royal Mail 24, and for the EU and the rest of the world, we use Royal Mail Standard Tracked shipping.
Collapsible row
In our quest to minimize emissions and ultimately become a carbon and energy-negative company, we're committed to roasting our coffee using electric roasters powered by renewable energy. Eventually every bit of energy we use, from the electricity powering our coffee roasters to the battery in the laptop used to write this message, will come from renewable sources.
At the moment, we're proud to say that 30-45% of the energy we use to roast our coffee is sourced from renewable energy.
Sustainability
We're deeply dedicated to sustainability, which is why our bags are 100% recyclable. They're free from any ink and glue, except for the non-toxic, biodegradable ink we use for the roasting date stamp.
Plus, we craft these bags without using any electricity, except for sealing them. Our bags are also resealable, making them perfect for multiple uses.