Kamvara Estate AA
Vibrant lemon acidity complemented by a rich mouthfeel and dark chocolate finish. Pineapple, blood plum and brown sugar.
Kamvara is a nine-hectare coffee farm and wet mill owned by Grace Wanjiru Njagi, located in Embu County. Grace has spent most of her life surrounded by coffee trees, as she’s the daughter of coffee farmers who owned an estate in the Nyeri County. Once she married, Grace and husband Ephraim Cornelius Njagi, also the son of coffee growers, established one of Embu County’s first coffee estates (number 22, to be exact) in 1962, naming it after the nearby village of Kamvara.
Since Ephraim’s passing in 2009, Grace has run Kamvara Estate independently, living at the farm with some of her family who work in other industries. She is supported by farm manager James Njage Njoka and Emily Muruge, who looks after processing. Since he began assisting Grace some 18 years ago, James has become like a son to her. A savvy operator, James tends to the coffee trees with great care and has applied many improvements at Kamvara. To prevent erosion, James has dug ditches between rows, and has implemented a regular pruning regiment (two to three times a year, depending on the amount of rainfall received) to reduce incidence of fungus and pest. The estate does not have irrigation in place, as it is fully rain-grown.
Along with coffee, Grace also grows cabbage, papaya, beans and macadamia. She also keeps rabbits, chickens and cows — which provide milk and yoghurt, produce excellent manure for the coffee farms, and create an opportunity for additional income as the dairy produced can be sold locally. The kitchen at her homestead is also fitted with a ‘biodigester,’ which takes household and agricultural waste and transforms it into biogas and organic fertiliser. This fuel can replace traditional energy sources like charcoal and firewood, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making household air cleaner and safer.
In 1989, Grace and Ephraim established a small wet mill (or factory, as they are called in Kenya) at Kamvara. Choosing to process coffee independently is not easy — or cheap. Managing processing on such a small scale has required significant investment in infrastructure, equipment and staff. It is also far costlier to mill and market small volume lots than large day lots. This investment has paid off, however, as Kamvara now produces some exceptionally high-quality lots which can fetch higher prices at the point of sale.
Following the Kenyan government’s 2023 reforms, we source coffee from Kamvara directly, with the help of Wycliffe Murwayi as the Direct Sales Agent. The benefits of the direct model are higher profits, as the buyer (in this case, MCM) must offer competitive pricing to secure the coffee, and a faster turnaround time between the sale and the grower receiving their payments. Direct sales also support a more meaningful and values-led relationship between the growers and their buyers and have become more widespread as the coffee sector adapts to the reforms.
ABOUT EMBU
Embu County is part of Kenya’s former Eastern Province, which was dissolved in 2013. Embu borders Kirinyaga to the west, along with the country’s central coffee-growing regions. Embu is the traditional home of the Embu, Kamba and Mbeere people. The region has a long and proud history of agriculture and cattle-raising; it is farmed intensively, with coffee, tea and dairy being the most important modern crops in Embu’s more humid areas. In the county’s drier terrain, beekeeping and goat rearing are also common.
Kenya’s central highlands are considered some of the wealthiest areas of the country, due to the incredibly fertile land, geographical proximity to the capital, Nairobi, and close integration with the country’s colonial administration before Kenya gained independence. This integration afforded some of the communities who lived here with opportunities for education, business and political prowess, even if most smallholders still had to endure the various injustices and limitations placed by the colonial government. That’s why independent estate owners who are able to process and sell their own crop are incredibly proud of their work, as it affords them access to markets and opportunities that have been historically difficult to reach.
GRADING
Kenya uses a grading system for all its exportable coffee lots. The grading system is based on the size and assumed quality of the bean. A coffee’s grade is directly correlated with the price it attracts at auction or through direct trade.
This coffee is graded as an AA. This grade relates to the size (in this case, AA means that the beans are screen size 18 and above). More AA grade coffee is found in Central Kenya than anywhere else in the country, thanks to the high elevations which allow for greater late yields. These later yield cherries have the benefit of better weather, with optimum sunshine and a longer period for the sugars to develop and when they are finally picked, they are typically fuller, redder and heavier than cherries grown in other areas.
HOW THIS LOT WAS PROCESSED
The coffee was carefully hand-selected by seasonal workers under James’ and Emily’s supervision. During the peak of the harvest, cherries were carefully picked, to ensure only the ripest are selected. After sorting, cherry was pulped using a pulping machine, which removes the skin mucilage (sticky fruit covering) from the inner parchment layer that protects the green coffee bean.
The coffee was then dry fermented for 16-24 hours, to break down the sugars and remove the remaining mucilage from the outside of the beans. Whilst the coffee was fermenting it was checked frequently, and when ready it was rinsed and removed from the tanks.
Using fresh water from the nearby Kaivarte stream, the parchment-covered coffee was soaked in clean water for another 24 hours and then washed and graded in water channels, before being transferred to raised drying tables. During the drying stage, which takes up to three weeks, the drying parchment was turned constantly to ensure it is dried evenly, until it reached 11–12% humidity. Once ready, coffee was dry milled and prepared for shipping.
