Karumandi station

Karumandi sits in Kirinyaga, in the coffee country on the southern side of Mount Kenya, and takes in cherry from smallholder members of the Karumandi Farmers’ Cooperative. The station does more than buy cherry: it runs supportive, regenerative and emergency funding for cooperative members, and puts money into reforestation and into incentives for resource and waste water management.

Processing follows the standard Kenyan washed route, with pulping, fermentation, washing through grading channels and slow drying on raised beds. The varieties are the usual Kenyan four: SL28 and SL34 for cup quality, alongside the more disease-resistant Ruiru 11 and Batian. At 1,700 masl the cherry ripens slowly, and the result is a ripe, juicy coffee with a heavy sweetness and a jammy mouthfeel.

About Quo Coffee

Quo is a small roastery in Skärhamn on Tjörn, north of Gothenburg, started by a group of colleagues who had worked together elsewhere in Swedish coffee. They buy on long relationships rather than spot lots, work with several producers they have known for over a decade, and pay attention to the carbon cost of getting coffee to Sweden. They were among the first roasters to join Belco’s sail freight programme.

Brewing it

Dense Kenyan beans take a slightly finer grind than a softer Latin American washed coffee, and grind consistency matters more when the acidity is this bright. A manual grinder with proper burrs, such as the 1Zpresso K-Ultra, is enough to get there. A reasonable starting point is 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water just off the boil, with a total time of 2:45 to 3:15. The blackcurrant character is easiest to read from a small, thick-walled cup like the Loveramics Hutch tasting cup, which holds temperature without adding anything of its own. Give the beans five to seven days off roast.

Coffee details