Kanyi Estate AB
Lemon-lime acidity, with red apple, berries and elderflower florals. Syrupy body and stonefruit sweetness.
Kanyi is a small, two-hectare estate located in Embu County, owned and managed by Mukami Mugo (pictured above). The farm sits at 1,730 meters above sea level in the foothills of the extinct volcano, Mt Kenya. The area is defined by its bright red, nutrient-rich, volcanic soil and cool climate, both of which contribute to the outstanding quality of the coffees produced on this farm.
Mukami inherited Kanyi from her parents, who first purchased and planted the land with coffee in the 1960s. At the time of planting they chose the SL-28 and SL-34 varieties that are commonly found in central Kenya, specifically because they produce a high-quality flavour profile. The varieties are harvested and processed together, as separation is challenging to achieve during the busy harvest period. Along with coffee, Mukami keeps four milk cows, two heifers, a couple of calves, and rabbits.
When it was first established, operations at the estate were led by Mukami’s mother, Sarah Kangi Mugo. At the time, she worked as a primary teacher during the week (Mukami’s dad had a career as a magistrate) and spent the weekends managing and tending to the farm — all while raising eight kids. Kanyi was run like this for decades, and many upgrades were made along the way, like the building of a small wet mill (or factory, as they are called in Kenya) in 1986, which was improved to handle more capacity in 2012. During this time, Mukami lived in the United States, only returning to the property in 2015, to spend time with her parents and take over her mother’s role as estate manager.
At Kanyi, most of Mukami’s family live in the homestead: her parents reside on the main home, and she has built an apartment above it, for herself and one of her three sons. Mukami’s younger sister (who manages operations at another shamba they own in the region’s lower elevations) also lives on the property, with one of her own sons. The family receive support from production manager Ken Macharia, who comes during the season and oversees picking and production. He typically enlists the help of up to 15 people to harvest cherry, and three to four people to process it.
Like many of her neighbours, Mukami has struggled with the effects of climate change in recent years, as they have led to an increase in Coffee Leaf Rust (a fungal infection) and Coffee Berry Disease (a bacterial infection). Since 2021, her yields have plummeted — leading her to question whether the enterprise was still worth the family’s time and financial commitment. When she talked to our partner on the ground Wycliffe Murwayi about her concerns, ahead of the most recent harvest, he encouraged her to persevere, and upon seeing marketing materials from the sale of her 2024 crop to MCM, she thought, “Oh, I have to get coffee for these guys, they will forget me if I don’t have any coffee for them to buy!” We’re so happy Mukami chose to stick it out another harvest, as her coffee showcases everything we love about coffee from Embu: Rich sweetness and tropical acidity, with notes of blackcurrant and stonefruit.
Part of what makes Kanyi so special is that it is grown and processed with complete oversight from the family, since they have a small factory on-site. This facility enables her to process and dry the crop onsite, rather than selling fresh, whole cherry to the local Farmers’ Society Cooperative. By taking control of every step of production directly – from farming, to harvesting, processing, drying and sale – Mukami ensures the full potential of her crop is achieved in terms of quality and sale price. The resulting coffee lots reflect the incredible amount of hard work and attention to managing every single variable that influences quality.
Choosing to process the 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 Kanyi now produces some exceptionally high-quality lots which can fetch higher prices at the point of sale. Her goal for the future is to add another layer of tiles to the factory’s fermentation tanks, which would increase the volume of coffee that can be processed every season.
Since the Kenyan government’s coffee trade reforms of 2023, we have been sourcing Mukami’s coffee directly, with the help of Wycliffe Murwayi as the marketing agent. To secure direct sales, Mukami has opened a USD account and is now responsible for producing the required documentation for export. 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. This region and its surrounds are considered to be some 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 in 1962. This integration afforded the communities who lived here with opportunities for education, business and political prowess, despite the various injustices of the colonial government. The Embu, Kamba and Mbeere people have a long and proud history of agriculture and cattle-raising, and the region is farmed intensively, with coffee, tea and dairy being the most important modern crops.
Like Mukami, many of the producers in the region are second-generation landholders, whose parents purchased and planted the land in the 1950s and 1960s, after agricultural reform allowed for small Kenyan farmers to produce cash crops on their family farms (instead of only on large, British owned estates). Farmers in Embu grow coffee as a cash crop alongside food crops like banana, maize, macadamia, avocados and vegetables. Tea and dairy are also important sources of income for the producers.
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 AB grade. This grade is easily defined by size (in this case, AB means that the beans are screen size 15 and above) and to a certain extent, quality. While it is assumed that AA lots represent the highest quality, we have often found AB and peaberry lots to be just as good.
HOW THIS LOT WAS PROCESSED
The coffee was carefully handpicked by the estate’s five employees, along with any seasonal workers required. During the peak of the harvest, cherries are carefully picked, to ensure only the ripest are selected. After sorting, cherry was pulped using a pulping machine, which removes the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that protects the green coffee bean.
The coffee was then dry fermented for 12-24 hours, to break down the sugars and remove the mucilage (sticky fruit covering) 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 clean water from nearby rivers, the parchment-covered coffee was 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 transported to the Embu County Mill to be dry milled and prepared for shipping.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Kanyi is named after Mukami’s mother’s maiden name.
WHY WE LOVE IT
Coffees from Embu are recognised for their bright, juicy acidity and “classic” Kenyan flavours of blackcurrant and lime. We think this lot represents the best of Embu, with its sugary sweetness and notes of blackcurrant and sour cherry. This is our first year of purchasing Mukami’s coffee, a new relationship for MCM since Kenya’s 2023 coffee reforms. You can read more about those here, and how we are moving forward with our Kenyan sourcing program here.
