About This Coffee
Evas Estate is a small farm owned by Rosemary Muroria. Rosemary is a medical doctor and widow with 2 teenaged boys. She inherited the farm from her husband in 2014. Since then, she's been focused on producing high-quality coffees and processing them on her farm. Her goals are to increase the size of her farm while increasing productivity and quality. She is working closely with Sucafina Kenya/Kahawa Bora Millers to make these dreams a reality.
Her 4.5 hectares are located near the town of Karatina in Kenya’s Nyeri County. The farm lies at 1,350 to 1,600 meters above sea level and training and support is given by Sucafina/Kahawa Bora in order to help the estate improve quality and productivity.
Cultivation
Nyeri County has rich soil and a temperate climate, making it perfect for coffee farming. Much of the coffee here is cultivated in the foothills of the Aberdare Mountains, which have warm days and cool nights and a plentiful water supply.
Evas is planted with the ‘traditionally’ grown SL34 and SL28 coffee trees and Ruiru 11. The ‘SL’ varieties were cultivars originally released by Scott Agricultural Laboratories (SAL) in the 1930s and 1940s. They soon became the go-to trees for many growers in Kenya due to their deep root structure, which allows them to maximize scarce water resources and flourish even without irrigation.
The Kenya Coffee Research Institute (CRI) (which replaced SAL after independence) released Ruiru-11 in 1985. A hybrid of Catimor and SL cultivars, Ruiru11 is both CBD and CLR resistant, plus it can be planted at a much higher density than the SL varieties, making optimal use of small plots of land.
Employees receive regular training from Sucafina Kenya in Good Agricultural Practices, including fertilizer application, pruning guidance and renovation advice, which helps them to keep the small farm in optimal condition. The team hopes that their work with Sucafina will enable them to improve yields and quality.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Evas is categorized as a ‘small estate’ in Kenya. This sector has, until recently, been frequently overlooked.
Traditionally, many farmers of this size in the country did not own their own processing equipment. They have historically delivered cherry to a centralized cooperative-owned ‘Factory’ (as washing stations are called, locally), where their production is combined with that of others from their region. Evas, however, has its own, small wet-mill where the farm is able to process its own coffee, ensuring full traceability back to the farm.
Cherry is selectively handpicked and then pulped. Coffee is dry fermented for 12 to 16 hours and washed in clean water to remove any remaining mucilage. Parchment is soaked for 12 hours and then transferred to raised beds where it sundries for 14 to 18 days. As it dries, parchment is turned regularly to ensure even drying.
Even for farmers who may have their own processing set up, the dry-milling set-up within Kenya does not well serve small-to-medium size farmers. Dry mills have lot minimums, which are usually about 50 bags of parchment per lot. This is often unattainable for smaller farmers, necessitating that they merge their lots with others, losing traceability, which in turn which lowers their overall returns and removes potential for name recognition and direct-trade relationships.
To cater for single producer lots that are very small, Kahawa Bora/Sucafina has a separate microlot milling line that was custom made to hull (remove the parchment from the green coffee beans) lots as small as one bag at a time. This line makes it possible for growers like Rosemary to maintain their own ‘brand’ when selling their coffee. We feel this is a push in the right direction for Kenyan growers to gain market access to quality-focused buyers overseas.
About Nyeri County
Nyeri County is one Kenya's most famous growing regions.
The name Nyeri is derived from the Masaai word nyiro, meaning red, after the red volcanic soil in the area. The name was adapted by white settler farmers to Nyeri. Most farmers in the area today grow tea and coffee as cash crops. Coffee varieties in the region are usually a mix between SL 28, SL 34 (roughly 80%) Batian and Ruiri 11.
AB Grade
Kenyan coffees are classified by size. AB beans are those that are between screen size 15 and 18 meaning that beans are between 6 and 7 millimeters in size.
Coffee in Kenya
Though coffee growing had a relatively late start in Kenya, the industry has gained and maintained a impressive reputation. Since the start of production, Kenyan coffee has been recognized for its high-quality, meticulous preparation and exquisite flavors. Our in-country sister company, Sucafina Kenya, works with farmers across the country to ensure these exceptional coffees gain the accolades they deserve.
Today, more than 600,000 smallholders farming fewer than 5 acres compose 99% of the coffee farming population of Kenya. Their farms cover more than 75% of total coffee growing land and produce nearly 70% of the country’s coffee. These farmers are organized into hundreds of Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCS), all of which operate at least one factory. The remainder of annual production is grown and processed by small, medium and large land estates. Most of the larger estates have their own washing stations.
Most Kenyan coffees are fully washed and dried on raised beds. The country still upholds its reputation for high quality and attention to detail at its many washing stations. The best factories employ stringent sorting practices at cherry intake, and many of them have had the same management staff in place for years.