Kenya: Ngugu Ini

About This Coffee

This is a washed coffee from the Kirinyaga region of Kenya, grown at 1600 meters altitude. The coffee is from the Ngugu-ini washing station, built in 1958 and owned by the Kibirigwi Farmer Cooperative Society, which has 7,200 members. The varieties include SL-28, SL-34, Ruiru 11, and Batian, grown in red volcanic soil. The coffee is hand-harvested and processed through a detailed washed method involving disc pulping, dry fermentation for 20-24 hours, water channel selection by density, and 48-hour soaking to enhance acidity complexity. The beans are dried on African beds for one to three weeks to reach 11-12% humidity, then rested in parchment for about a month. The cup profile features complex, vibrant acidity with candy-like sweetness, balanced and juicy characteristics with flavors of apricot, blackcurrant, grapefruit, honey, and rhubarb. This is a 2023 harvest year coffee.

Origin

Kirinyaga (Kenya)

Flavor Notes

Grapefruit, Honey

Roast Level

Light

Processing

Washed

Typology

Arabica

SL-28, SL-34, Ruiru-11, Batian

Buy from Roaster

Caffè Tomassi

Emanuele Tomassi built his micro roastery as a natural extension of Caos, his coffee bar in Aprilia south of Rome, after a chance meeting with Klaus Thomsen, World Barista Champion and co founder of Coffee Collective, during a period living in Denmark in 2009 ignited a passion for specialty coffee that redirected his career. The roastery, which Emanuele describes as his "games room" in the back of the bar, uses technology to manage the roasting curve and produces specialty coffee for both espresso and filter using omni roast profiles. Emanuele won the Italian Coffee Roasting Championship in 2018 and again in 2024, establishing himself as one of the most decorated competition roasters in the country, and the operation is now a father and son affair. Tomassi Coffee represented Italy at Roast Masters Milan 2019 alongside barista Jorge Albarracin Quintero, and provides descriptive estate information for every coffee it sells, emphasizing the story and terroir behind each origin. The micro roastery continues to roast from Aprilia with the same curiosity driven philosophy that a Danish encounter planted more than fifteen years ago.

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