Coffee from tea country

Nandi Hills sits at the western edge of the Great Rift Valley and is best known for its tea estates, which still carry the local economy. Coffee is a newer crop here, and many of the farms were planted within the last 10 to 15 years. Great Rift Coffee is a family run farm that switched from sugarcane to coffee, one of a small group of producers working to show what the area can do.

Why a natural from Kenya stands out

Most Kenyan coffee is washed: the fruit is removed and the beans are fermented and soaked before drying, which gives the bright, blackcurrant-like acidity the country is known for. For this lot the cherries are fermented with little oxygen and then dried whole in the sun, so the bean picks up sugars from the fruit. The cup keeps Kenya’s citrus acidity, here as pomelo, but adds a juicy blueberry sweetness and more body than a washed Kenyan.

About Guido Coffee

Guido is a specialty roastery, coffee shop and barista school in Bucharest, Romania. The team tests and picks a roast profile for each green coffee and recommends how many days each one should rest after roasting before it tastes its best. Their range is split into three collections: Core for chocolatey, low acidity coffees, Explore for fruitier and more floral lots, and Vision for rare and experimental coffees in small batches. Nandi Hills belongs to the Explore collection.

Brewing it

Guido roasts this lot for espresso. Under pressure the pomelo acidity softens and the blueberry sweetness moves to the centre, while the citrus tightens into a dense, syrupy body. If a shot tastes sharp, grind a touch finer or pull it a little longer. A manual lever such as the Flair 49 Pro also lets you lower the pressure toward the end of the shot to round it off.

Coffee details