Today’s coffee comes from Mugaga Farmers Cooperative, based in Mathira, Nyeri, Kenya.
Kagumoini is a “factory” (a coffee mill) that is part of the Mugaga Farmer’s Cooperative Society, directed by Peter Macharia. It’s near Karatina town in Mathira, Nyeri with average farms in the area at 1600 meter altitude, red volcanic loam soils (typical for the area), and other crops including tea, corn, and bananas. It’s a typical cooperative in those respects, but the quality of coffee produced at this mill has been very high season after season.
Each factory has hundreds of small-hold farmers that contribute to it. These SL28 and 34 cherries were hand picked and processed with two fermentations, a post soak and multiple washing stages in between. The coffees are then immediately dried in two stages on raised beds.
As with other good coops in Nyeri, they always have the farmer separate the ripeness of the coffee cherry before submitting it for processing, removing under-ripes that create astringency in the cup. Small things like this make a huge difference in the resulting coffee.
Welcome to my Table, here in the corner of this cafe. Today we’re sipping the Kenya Kagumoini AB, from Coffee Mojo in Wicklow, Ireland. Feel free to pull up a chair.
the basics:
region: Aberdares, Central Province, Kenya
farm/factory: Kagumoini
producer: smallholder farmers
association: Mugaga Farmers Cooperative
elevation: 1600 – 1800 meters above sea level
cultivars: SL28, SL34
process: fully washed, raised bed dried
certifications: standard
the coffee:
The Kagumoini’s aroma is soft and elegant, sweet and fragrant with notes of perfumy violets that flutter up, followed closely by dark berries and honey.
Just a few sips into the coffee immediately post-brew and my palate is already completely overwhelmed by its liveliness. This coffee is already intensely bright, floral, and fruity. A really sweet strawberry wine flavor and mouthfeel present themselves early on; there are also notes of Fuji apple, honey, violet aromatics, and a sprinkling of sugar cane.
As it cools off, more fruit flavors make their presence known. These fruit flavors are lively and pungent, to be sure, but they aren’t “bright” or “effervescent.” No, these are darker skinned, fleshy fruits; not the kind that are crisp and light when you bite into them, rather the kind that are soft, moist, and oh so juicy.
Beautiful tones of plum (especially plum), blackberry, raisin, currant, cherry, black grape, peach, nectarine, apricot, raspberry, licorice, coriander, cranberry, grape jelly, raisin, and pluot all completely envelope the palate while a sharp tangerine acidity cannonballs right in the middle of the tongue then splashes over the sides and sweeps to the back of the throat, leaving something of a maple syrup and freshly baked croissant sweetness in a lingering finish.
Supple body; syrupy mouthfeel; citrus acidity; clean finish.
the bottom line:
What a coffee. Wow. The Kenya Kagumoini AB, from Coffee Mojo, is an absolutely beautiful coffee that is supple, voluptuous, dynamic, intensely flavorful, extremely sensational, and, well, downright sexy.
It lures you in with a soft and delicate aroma, then it explodes onto the palate with such ferocity that it takes you by surprise and leaves you speechless.
This is a coffee that really pops.
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Andrew is a husband, father, dog lover, craft beverage enthusiast, content creator, and niche market Internet celebrity. Formerly of A Table in the Corner of the Cafe and The Pulitzer Project and contributor to Barista Magazine and Mental Floss, he’s been writing on the Internet for years.