About This Coffee
Edwin and Mary farm their land alongside Edwin’s mother, Rahab, and his brother, Samuel. Together, they blend lots from all three family farms to create Kairima. Their shared washing station, located on Rahab’s plot, is just steps from the family’s original home. While relatively new to specialty coffee practices, the Kamaus have a long-standing history in coffee production, dating back to the 1950s.
Today, their legacy extends beyond farming. Under their brand, Edmax, they roast coffee and run a café in Nairobi, working to promote local coffee consumption and build a vibrant coffee culture. Their dedication to quality, sustainability, and transparency has made it an honor to partner with them.
Cultivation
The family’s vision for the future is to produce high quality coffee using fully sustainable agricultural practices, including both social and environmental aspects. Long term goals include developing an agile and dynamic system that coordinates technology and professionalism of all those working on the farm. A key priority in achieving this is Making sure that traceability is assured for every lot of coffee they produce.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
After selective handpicking on the various farms, coffee is pulped using a drum pulper. Then, coffee is dry fermented for around 20 hours, depending on the ambient temperature. After fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and laid to dry on raised beds, where drying temperature and sun exposure is carefully monitored to preserve quality.
About SL28 & SL34
SL28 and SL34 were two of the cultivars released by Scott Agricultural Laboratories (SAL) during the height of SAL’s research in Kenya in the 1930s and 1940s. They soon became the cultivars of choice for most growers thanks to their deep root structure that allows them to maximize scarce water resources and flourish even without irrigation. SL varieties also had higher yields than the French Bourbon rootstock that they replaced and were known to be somewhat more disease resistant.
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.