Kenya Burumani

Tasting Notes: Winey · Raspberry · Blackcurrant · Boozy

Kenya's classic SL cultivars taken down the natural route. Where most Kenyan coffee is washed clean to showcase that famous blackcurrant acidity, this lot is dried in whole cherry — the fruit sugars stay with the bean through the drying bed, and the cup comes out unapologetically winey.

Raspberry and blackcurrant lead, with a boozy depth underneath and a long, jammy finish. If you have only ever had washed Kenyan coffee, this is the other half of the story.

Burumani is a family farm in the highlands of Nyeri County, owned and managed by Mr. and Mrs. Gikonyo. Their family first planted a handful of SL trees for their own table in the early 1950s; seventy years on it is a specialty estate, and SL28 is once again the backbone. The estate farms on organic principles, works toward certification, and puts its weight behind its neighbours — youth employment, support for women, young people and persons with disabilities, and equipping the local dispensaries and maternal care.

Origin

• Estate: Burumani Coffee Estate — Mr. and Mrs. Gikonyo
• Region: Nyeri County — Central Kenya
• Altitude: 1,652 m above sea level
• Process: Natural
• Varietal: SL28 · SL34 · Ruiru 11 · Batian
• Crop: 2026 harvest
• Roast: Medium

In The Cup

• Body: Medium-full, jammy
• Acidity: Winey, raspberry-bright
• Sweetness: Blackcurrant jam, dark fruit
• Finish: Long, jammy, boozy

About The Origin

Milled at Othaya Coffee Mill.

About The Varietal

SL28 was selected in 1935 by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in Kenya from drought-tolerant Tanzanian stock of Bourbon type; it is prized for intense fruit and blackcurrant-like acidity at altitude but is susceptible to leaf rust and coffee berry disease. SL34, selected by the same laboratory in the late 1930s from a tree on Loresho Estate, Kabete (recent genetic work links it to Typica), gives similarly high quality and is also disease-susceptible. Ruiru 11 is a compact hybrid released in 1985 by Kenya's Coffee Research Foundation after the 1968 coffee berry disease epidemic, resistant to both rust and CBD, with a good but usually less distinctive cup. Batian, released by the same station in 2010 from SL28, SL34, Rume Sudan and Timor Hybrid lines, is a tall, CBD-resistant variety rated very good in the cup at altitude.

How It Was Processed

Whole cherry, oxygen-free fermentation, then raised beds

Brewing Notes

Excellent as filter or pour-over, where the raspberry sits highest. Bold enough for espresso too, reading as jammy and syrupy. Rest the bag 7–10 days after roast — naturals reward patience.

Brewed With Purpose

Roasted in small batches at our Maxwell Road roastery by baristas writing a new chapter. Every bag helps fund barista and life-skills training through The TCE Academy — because marginality is not destiny.

"You have saved the best till now." — John 2:10