Kenya Premium Machakos – Ngomano FCS – AA

Description

Nothing else tastes like a nice Kenya coffee. Many consider them the all star of the coffee world due to them being brighter cup, cleaner cups with an incredible depth and potency of flavors.

Machakos county is one of central Kenya’s largest, beginning south of Nairboi and spanning northeast along the borders of Kiambu, Muranga’a, and Embu counties, some of Kenya’s oldest coffee producing areas. Machakos is lesser-known than the highly competitive central counties of Kiambu, Kirinyaga, and Nyeri, and while it is commonly known as “Eastern” Kenya, it nonetheless is capable of producing excellent quality coffees, as it contains similar latitudes and elevations to the rest of the central area.

This particular lot comes from Ngomano “fly crop”, a smaller secondary harvest common in many equatorial coffee producing countries that follows a secondary rainy season. Fly crop Kenyas are not as large as the main harvest, but nonetheless can yield exquisite tasting, highly rated coffee and beautiful coffee. Plus super fresh beans in the off season is quite a perk!

Ngomano Factory is the sole washing station in the Ngomano Farmer Cooperative Society (FCS). The producer group belongs to the Machakos Cooperative Union, an umbrella organization that represents 28 societies in the county and offers benefits to its member commonly provided by 3rd party service providers elsewhere in Kenya, including dry milling, farmer training, marketing, and subsidized farm inputs like pesticides, fertilizer, and fungicides.

Kenya is of course known for some of the most meticulous at-scale processing that can be found anywhere in the world. Ample water supply in the central growing regions has historically allowed factories to wash, and wash, and soak, and wash their coffees again entirely with fresh, cold river water. Conservation is creeping into the discussion in certain places understandably in the drier areas where water, due to climate change, cannot be as taken for granted but for the most part Kenya continues to thoroughly wash and soak its coffees according to tradition. The established milling and sorting by grade, or bean size, is a longstanding tradition and positions Kenya coffees well for roasters, by tightly controlling the physical preparation and creating a diversity of profiles from a single processing batch.

Tasting Notes: This Kenya AA is a clean, balanced, and full-flavored cup that performs beautifully from light to dark. It sits in the medium acidity range for a Kenya still crisp and lively, but not as sharply intense as some lots can be. Our favorite roast level was a light-medium roast, where it opens with a bright lemony crispness followed by a faint hint of red fruit. As the cup develops, it settles into a pleasant sweetness with chocolate depth and a subtle nutty tone, finishing with a light touch of herbal spice in the aftertaste that can read like dark tea. It’s an excellent example of a more traditional Kenya profile with great clarity and balance. Taken darker, it becomes much more chocolate-forward and thicker on the palate, showing deeper notes of caramelized sugar, spice, and nuttiness, with a fuller body and noticeably less citrus brightness. While we preferred it on the lighter side, it remains surprisingly complex even in darker roasts, making it a versatile coffee across roast styles.

Roasting Notes: This coffee is easy to roast and very consistent, with fresh, larger-screened beans and low to medium chaff. Like many high-altitude coffees, the surface color tends to darken quickly, often appearing darker around first crack than many other origins so it’s best not to rely on color alone. A short, controlled development just after first crack works especially well for a light to light-medium roast, preserving the crisp citrus character and keeping the cup lively. If you’re aiming for a more chocolate-driven profile with lower perceived acidity and a heavier body, pushing it into a darker roast will bring out more chocolate, caramelized sugar, spice, and nuttiness. Because this isn’t an extremely high-acidity Kenya, slightly quicker roast times tend to keep the cup more vibrant; slowing it down too much can soften the profile and make it taste a bit flatter.