Description

Karogoto is one of four wet mills that are owned by the Tekangu farmers cooperative society, there is a total of 1054 active farmers that deliver cherries to the Karogoto wetmill amognst them 421 are women producers.

Most of the coffees from Nyeri develop and mature slowly producing extra hard beans and this quality is also very evident in the cup.

This is why Nyeri is traditionally known as the heart of Kenya’s black gold coffee and the main harvesting season it runs from October to December and in some colder years it can stretch into late January as the ripening might take longer.

Nyeri County has cool temperatures and fertile central highlands, lying between the Eastern base of the Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range, which forms part of the Eastern end of the Great Rift Valley, and the Western slopes of Mt. Kenya. Nyeri town (county main town) acts as a destination for those visiting Aberdare National Park and Mt. Kenya.

There are numerous wet mills in Nyeri often just a few minutes drive from one to another, the main reason for this is that Nyeri is home to thousands of smallholder farmers that owns on average 0,5 hectares of land where they typically grow coffee, maize, pasture and other crops such as sweet potatoes or potatoes.

A farmer typically will pick her/ his coffee cherries and sell them to the nearest wet mill that is within walking distance.

The cherries get bulked together in so-called day lots before they are processed and dried by the staff on a cooperative wet mill, after being sorted through floatation the cherries get pulped and then placed in tank to ferment in fresh water for around 8 to 10 hours to soften the mucilage overnight and than washed in channels early in the morning, to then be placed an African raised beds to dry slowly over the course of 2 to 3 weeks until the moisture content reach 10-12%, ready to be marketed through the traditional auction system or directly to roasters.