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About Karani AA
Picture this: you’re one of the 600 smallholder farmers who deliver their coffee cherries to the Karani Factory operated by the Kabare Cooperative Society. You’re exhausted from the hard work of harvesting perfectly ripe cherries earlier that very same day. You lift your gaze just before you depart and are greeted with a stunning vista of the snowcapped peaks of Mt Kenya and you feel a bit lighter literally (because you’ve dropped your cherries) and figuratively.
Fun fact: 99% of the coffee farmers in Kenya have farms smaller than 5 acres. But, farmers who bring their cherries to the Karani Factory have farms that are truly extremely small, averaging only about 20 trees total. But, no harvest is too small to bring to for processing and provides extra cash income for the growers.
Once dropped at the factory, the cherry is meticulously sorted by the adorably named ‘cherry clerk’ whose job is to ensure their high quality standard is met. After processing, the beans are sorted through screens and classified by size, with AA being the largest and typically considered the highest quality.
The region is blessed with rich, volcanic and sandy soil. It’s also well irrigated and lush with flora. These conditions are perfect for growing tasty coffee known for vibrant acidity and complex flavors — hallmarks of the Kenyan origin.
REGION: Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kenya
FARM/MILL: Karani
VARIETAL: SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11
ALTITUDE: 1,800 meters
PRODUCER: Karani Factory
PROCESS: Washed
Sourced through our partners at Falcon Coffees.
Tastes like
Black Cherry, Citrus Zest, Raw Sugar
Brewing Recommendation
While we strive to roast our coffees to be enjoyable using any brewing method, try this coffee on V60 or Chemex.
V60 Brewing Ratio - 1:16.6 [i.e. 15g coffee and 250g water]
Chemex Brewing Ratio - 1:16 [i.e. 25g coffee and 400g water]
We ship almost all orders same or next day, Monday-Friday. We ship via USPS and typically orders take 2-5 days arrive. (But, as you may know, once we drop your package off, shipping times are out of our control.)
The coffee is usually roasted within one business day (Monday-Friday) of shipment. We recommend waiting at least 3-4 days after the roasting date before brewing. (And we think the sweet spot is around 2 weeks!)
All our coffees will be somewhere in the vicinity of a light to medium roast.
The way we approach roasting coffees is called 'profile roasting' meaning that we create a unique roasting profile for each coffee based on the characteristics of each bean (density, size, moisture level within the bean, etc) and how it reacts while roasting so that we can get what we believe to be the best expression possible for each of our coffees!
Lucky for you, any of our coffees can be brewed as espresso!
We aim to roast our coffee so that it tastes great in a variety of brew methods. (Fun fact: espresso is a brew method, not a type of coffee bean!)
If one of our offerings sounds good to you, we bet you’ll like it on espresso too! But, we always like to suggest Tres Banderas as a starting point for espresso.
No, most of our coffees aren’t ‘certified’ organic. But!! That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not grown using organic processes. For many of the farms/mills that we purchase coffee from, the cost of the certification could put them out of business — new and separate equipment, cost of application process, the time spent going through certification (multiple years), etc. You can read more on the topic in our blog post here.
We are not officially fair trade certified and typically do not purchase Fair Trade certified coffees. We believe the system is a good one, and has helped many farmers and families earn a better living, however, one thing it does not address well is quality of product, and we typically pay much higher prices for higher quality.
Fair trade usually offers farmers a small premium (about $.40) on top of whatever the current market price for coffee is. We either work directly with producers or importers that already pay well above Fair Trade prices for high quality coffees. We pay top prices for great coffees regardless of any certification. Please feel free toreach out to us if you have any other questions regarding our buying practices.
Your enthusiastic satisfaction with your order is our top priority! If you are dissatisfied with your purchase, please contact us to discuss available options.
You have 30 calendar days to return an item from the date the order was placed. To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it in and must be in the original packaging.
Please note that we cannot accept returns on coffee because it is a perishable item. If we made an error in fulfilling your coffee order, we will, of course, make it right! Just contact us and we’ll get everything sorted.
Visit our full FAQ page or send us a note at hello@crema-coffee.com.