Kenya Gachatha PB

This lot is the selection of barista’s from across Australia who attended MICE 2024. At MICE, we presented three Kenyan coffees from Condesa for attendees to taste and vote on their favourite. This coffee was selected with 58 votes from 126 participants.

Gachatha Coffee Factory rests on a 392-acre piece of land between the villages of Muthuaini, Thiriku, Gachenge, and Kianjau. It started in 1963 to form the Gachatha Farmers’ Co-operative Society Ltd. Co-op. Its current members stand at 1,542. The factory treats all water in soak pits to ensure no contaminates run into the local waterways, which are a source for drinking water. The community also places great importance on protecting the indigenous trees that remain in the area, so that the local bird life can be sustained.

Gachatha factory was formed in 1963 and it is situated in the slopes of the Aberdare mountain range, Karundu location, Nyeri County about 150km north of Kenya’s capital
Nairobi. Gachatha Coffee Factory experiences moderate bimodal rainfall and temperatures here range from 13 to 24C year round. The main varieties of coffee grown here is SL28, Batian, SL34 and Ruiru 11. The region has deep, fertile well drained red volcanic soils which are ideal for coffee production.

After picking, ripe cherry is brought to the factory by smallholder farmers, before it undergoes processing to remove the skin and pulp – known as the wet processing method.
The nearest water source and the factory are dependent on electrical pumps to move water to reservoir tanks before using it for processing. Water is also recirculated for conservation. The factory is using a disc pulper with three sets of discs to remove the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that is protecting the green coffee bean. After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight to break down the sugars, before it is cleaned, soaked and spread out on raised drying tables. Time on the drying tables depends on climate, ambient temperature and total production volumes currently undergoing processing.

Hulling machinery removes the parchment layer (endocarp) from wet processed coffee. Hulling dry processed coffee refers to removing the entire dried husk — the exocarp,
mesocarp and endocarp — of the dried cherries. Polishing is an optional process where any silver skin that remains on the beans after hulling is removed by machine. While polished beans are considered superior to unpolished ones, in reality, there is little difference between the two. Grading and Sorting is done by size and weight, and beans are also reviewed for color flaws or other imperfections. Beans are sized by being passed through a series of screens. They are also sorted pneumatically by using an air jet to separate heavy from light beans. Typically, the bean size is represented on a scale of 10 to 20. The number represents the size of a round hole’s diameter in terms of 1/64’s of an inch. A number 10 bean would be the approximate size of a hole in a diameter of 10/64 of an inch, and a number 15 bean, 15/64 of an inch.

Finally, defective beans are removed either by hand or by machinery. Beans that are unsatisfactory due to deficiencies (unacceptable size or color, over-fermented beans,
insect-damaged, unhulled) are removed.

PRE-FINANCING FARMERS
From funds set aside from the previous year’s harvest, members of the cooperative can access pre-financing for school fees, access to farm inputs and funds for emergency needs. The factory is receiving assistance from a field partner- Coffee Management Services (CMS). The long term goal is to increase coffee production through farmer training, ready access to inputs, Good Agricultural Practice seminars, and providing the most current printed materials on sustainable farming. By paying the producers some of the highest returns for their coffee this objective becomes more possible. Dorman strongly believes in establishing a transparent, trust based relationship with smallholder farmers, helping to support sustained industry growth throughout the country, and continuing to elevate the standards of quality coffee produced in Kenya.

SUSTAINABLE FARMING
In line with the rising awareness on the need to conserve the environment, the factory has dug the waste water soak pits away from the water source where the waste water is allowed to soak in back to the soil. Currently the factory does not engage in waste water treatment. Additionally the society encourages its members to plant trees on their farms.

MANAGEMENT
Gachatha Coffee factory is run by a factory manager who oversees all activities within the factory. Together with other staff members they carry out duties such as weighing coffee, selection and grading of coffee, paying farmers and addressing farmers’ complaints. Jane Nyawira is the Factory Manager at Gachatha Coffee Factory.

WELFARE
Currently the factory offers farm inputs on credit and cash advances to farmers as incentives.

BREW RECIPE / ESPRESSO
PRESSURE / 9 BAR
TEMPERATURE / 93.5C
BASKET / 20G VST
DOSE / 20G
YIELD / 45G
TIME / 32 Seconds

BREW RECIPE / FILTER
BREW DEVICE / Hario V60 Water
TEMPERATURE / 96C
DOSE / 22G
WATER VOLUME / 365G
BREW TIME / 3:30 Minutes
BLOOMING TIME / 45 Seconds
WATER / Soft Filtered Water