Gloria Gummerus’ coffee is making a return this season. We are proud to have a Kenyan AA SL28 from the Sakami farm back on our shelves.

This washed coffee is grown at the foot of Mount Elgon in Kenya, a country renowned for its exceptional coffee. With their own export license, Sakami are able to bypass the bureaucratic auction process that most Kenyan farmers have to face, allowing them to offer traceable single-farm lots. They are committed to providing stable and fair employment within their communities, while trying to help farmers pool their money to get fair deals on credit and resources. By having and operating their own wet mill, they are able to maintain greater control over processing, enabling them to recognise the coffee’s full potential, achieve fair prices, and earn an equitable income from their hard work.

Additionally, Sakami prioritises sustainability and environmental stewardship. They implement practices such as the intercropping of macadamia trees with coffee, the safeguarding of the natural environment that surrounds the farm, using apiculture (beekeeping) to avoid harmful pesticides, running most operations on solar power, together with repurposing coffee pulp and wastewater as farm inputs.

This Kenyan coffee is graded AA, which is a size rating rather than a quality rating. AA is the largest grade of Kenyan beans, and typically the larger beans are of better quality due to their higher density and oil content, and have more complex fruity notes than smaller grades.

This coffee is also an SL28 cultivar. A cultivar is different to a variety, as a cultivar is bred through selective cross breeding and other human intervention. SL28 is a crossbreed of drought resistant African coffees, closely related to the Bourbon variety, and was first grown in Tanzania in 1935. At the time, SL28 was highly sought after for its drought resistant properties. It is still in high demand today, though now for its highly desirable flavour profile, making it one of the best examples of great Kenyan coffee.

We came back to this coffee because it has that classic washed Kenyan flavour profile the world has come to love. It has strong notes of red currants, cherry cola sweetness, and a good splash of black tea, a perfect all day sipper we’re sure you’ll enjoy.