Counter Culture Coffee Kenya Ndaroini Microlot
As I’ve come to enjoy and appreciate coffee, it’s really the concept of the “microlot” coffee that has most grabbed my imagination. In the same way that single-vineyard wines or single-barrel whisk(e)ys offer the opportunity to taste a wholly unique example of that product, microlot coffees do the same. When the vast bulk of coffees that we see around us are at best single-origin coffees (e.g. “Colombian”), the microlot coffee stands apart as an entirely different experience.
This is my most distinct fascination with the specialty-coffee market, and the small handful of roasters that I pay attention to. Not only are they roasting great coffee, but they are making a distinct effort to find and offer the best coffees from around the world, and paying homage to the people who grow those coffees. Terroir, Intelligentsia, and Counter Culture are especially good at this. If you peruse their websites you can learn so much about the stories and the people behind the coffees that they are offering, and I firmly believe that this enhances the experience of your morning coffee. Instead of your coffee lacking personality and a background, you can now know that the coffee you’re drinking was grown by a person or a cooperative in a specific place in a specific country, growing certain varietals using very specific methods. While this is not guaranteed to make your coffee taste better (although it should be a better tasting coffee), it educates you about the coffee that you’re drinking and puts front-and-center the stories of the people who are producing coffee throughout the world.
In order to raise the value associated with coffee and to thereby enable the farmers growing it to earn a living wage, this kind of consumer-education is very important. And from my perspective as someone interested in learning more about coffee and its unique expressions, this kind of information is priceless.
The case of this microlot from Counter Culture is a perfect example.If you look at their webpage about the coffee you have a chance to learn about the Kenyan coffee auction system which previously made it nearly impossible for coffee buyers to single out small lots of coffee such as this, but that a few years ago the Kenyan government passed a law allowing farmers to sell their coffee directly to buyers, circumventing the auction system. After a few years of diligent work by buyers such as Counter Culture, they have now forged relationships with growers in Kenya and are bringing in certain microlots such as this one.
This coffee was produced by the Ndaroini collective located in Nyeri Kenya. At an altitude of 1600 meters they are growing the SL-28 and SL-34 varietals (I should research and write a page about Kenyan varietals, all of which have these codes for names). The coffee is harvested from October-December, and I believe this coffee was harvested in 2008, although I am not certain. As a result of their relationships with the cooperative, Counter Culture was not only able to source this coffee, but to have it vacuum-sealed at origin, so that it retained as much of its freshness as possible before arriving at their roastery in North Carolina.
After my very first sip I was convinced that this was a very good coffee. The nose has citrus fruits, hot peppers, scents of dark hot chocolate and a notable woodiness. The palate starts with a light-berry sweetness laced with a very bright acidity underscored by flavors of cocoa. The finish is driven by a pleasant acidity that gives way to an unsweetened cocoa flavor and a hint of butterscotch. From start-to-finish this coffee is bright with a good acidity, and is simply packed with flavor.
I’ll be sad when this is gone, but fortunately Counter Culture is currently offering another microlot of Kenyan coffee, this one from the Tegu cooperative, which I may decide to give a whirl. If it’s anything like this coffee, it will be very satisfying, to drink and to learn about!
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