#18 Kenya

I had the oppertunity to meet Boyce in Berlin 2018. I was convinced that I should try out his coffees as he is high reputation as a farmer. All his coffees is usually sold out before the harvest is over. So I am really happy I got the oppertunity to get hold of his coffees. 

The Harris family has been living in kenya, since 1904 in the town of Thika (Central Province). Its a 5 generation coffee producer and today the own 2 farms. Chaia and Oreti.

The farm is located in the red soils of Oreti. And these varieties are seldom varieties you dont see very often in Kenya. 

They produces varities as SL 14 and red bourbon, which is very unusual for Kenya. SL 14, was the first Variety to be planted in Kenya. And since then the SL 28 & SL 28 has taken the center stage in Kenya. Boyce is the only one to produce this variatal today..

Coffees from Kenya are usually very fruity / acid of two reasons. Variety and terroir. 

When calibrating your espresso shot, make sure you bring out a medium to high acidity. A shorter extraction time is recommended. The coffee beans are also bigger than a ie. a bourbon variety -´ and sometimes they have a tendency to jump in the grinder during the grinding process depending on your grinder. 

- so make sure your grinder is filled with a little bit more than usual. I always recommend as little as possible. But in this case, you want to maintain a homogeneous gravity when the beans get in contact with your burrs. 

The dose is calculated using a 20g VST porta filter.

Min dose is 19g/ and Max dose 21 g. pr dobb espresso.    

This coffee is ideal to brew on Siphon, Chemex, Hario, Stagg fellow and December dripper Brew/ratio mass depends on how you pour the water, the weight of your coffee and the length of your brew. I like to recommend that you try to use different pouring techniques. So you will find out what will suit you and the coffee you have in your hands.

Step 1

Prefinfusion = Using water to wet the coffee, so the particle can absorb water, giving access to flavour and aromas. As a rule when you use less coffee, less water is used to preinfusion. "just enough to cover the coffee in the filter".

Step 2

Blooming = this is where the coffee particles is expanding, as any cellular products, giving access to transform the coffee attributes in to flavours and aromas. As a genius = less coffee/shorter blooming time. More Coffee/longer blooming time = that make sense right? Ie. 33 g of coffee = 30 sec blooming time. 60 g of coffee = 50-60 sec blooming time.

Step 3

Building up your coffee in the filter = you coffee brewing times length and letting you coffee steep in the filter. Coffee needs to be handled firm and homogenises.

Ie. Dont let your coffee set/sit or "dry out in the filter" when you pour the water in your coffee filter. Vise versa, you have to be careful, that you don't pour too much water, so you create a "swimming pool" on top of the coffee in the filter. The coffee should have a smooth "run through" contact time with water. You can find inspiration on brew guides