African Import

When you start looking into what varieties are present in the Volcan de Santa Ana, you'll notice that a few farms at the highest elevations have 'Kenya' beans. Long before we discovered the outstanding cup quality of this variety, farmers at the top were planting Kenya for its cold resistance. 

How did these beans get here? What we've learned is that a member of the de Sola family brought back coffee seeds to El Salvador from a trip to Africa in the 1910s, at least a decade before Scott Laboratories started their development of the S.L. varieties. So these Kenya plants can not be S.L. 28. We think they could be French Mission, though we still need to test the genetics.

What we do know is that the cup has floral aroma, great acidity and juicy taste.

We're offering microlots of Kenya beans from different farms on the Volcan de Santa Ana: some producers in Buenos Aires have picked 100% Kenya beans, while other lots are mixed with Pacamara and Bourbon. 

Las Nubes has a few tablones (areas of the farm) which have up to 40% Kenya. This year they harvested the variety separately and we tested various processing methods on the different daylots.

Kenya Lots 2013-2014

• Las Nubes Kenya - Dry Ferment & 16 hour Post-Soak

• Las Nubes Kenya - Honey

• Las Nubes Kenya - Dry Ferment & Wash

• La Juana Kenya - Natural

• La Juana Kenya - Honey

• El Picacho Kenya - Semiwashed

• Los Angeles Kenya - White Honey