Muhathi Estate AB
Pomelo, yellow nectarine and blackcurrant, balanced by panela sweetness. Lifted and delicate.
Muhathi is a five-hectare coffee estate located in Kiambu County, in Kenya’s central highlands. It is owned by Peris Wambui Karugondo, who runs it with the help of her son Sam Gicho Wambui. Muhathi is a single parcel part a larger family-owned property, which was inherited by Peris and her siblings on their parents’ passing and divided into three plots: Dagitu, Muhathi and Ndocha. Peris and her siblings, Danson and Geoffrey, manage their shambas (Swahili for farm) independently and share a wet mill (or factory, as they are known in Kenya) which was built by their father in the 1980s. Each sibling processes and markets their coffee as a separate lot.
Like many coffee farms in the region, the estate was established in the early 1960s, when the siblings’ grandparents planted 100 trees in the wake of the 1952 Mau Mau uprising and the resulting land reforms, which allowed Kenyan nationals to own and plant coffee farms. Prior to these reforms, all coffee estates in the country were owned by British exporters who strictly regulated the industry to exclude African Kenyans.
Before farming coffee, Peris lived in the UK where she worked as a nurse. After 22 years, she returned home to look after her mother, who was losing her health. When the siblings inherited the property, Peris kept the estate’s original name, Muhathi, for her parcel. The shamba is beautifully maintained by Peris and Sam, who are assisted by up to 50 seasonal workers during the harvest.
The entire property, totalling about 25 hectares, sits in the foothills of the extinct volcano Mt. Kenya, nearby the Komothai river, in an area defined by its bright red, nutrient-rich, volcanic soil and cool climate. The geographical conditions of the region are ideal for exceptional coffee production and contribute to the outstanding quality of this lot. Besides coffee and sustenance crops, the siblings also raise cows and pigs, which provide manure to produce excellent compost, when mixed coffee pulp that is a by-product of washed processing.
The main varieties grown on the farm are SL28 and SL34, which were both selected and planted by Peris’ grandfather. In recent years, trees at Muhathi have struggled with the effects of climate change, as productivity has nearly halved and incidences of coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease have increased. To avoid using chemicals to combat this, Peris and Sam follow a strict pruning regime, using the trimmed branches to build ground cover and prevent erosion. Peris has also introduced the hybrid Batian to positive results, as it is highly resistant to disease and pests, and has been backcrossed with SL28 and SL34 to achieve a high cup quality. Due to its size and space requirements, Batian is also easy to plant between the already established SL trees.
The family has been processing their own coffee since 1987, when their father first built the infrastructure for processing, and is now overseen by Peris. The on-site facility was constructed with great care and expertise, modelled on a local cooperative’s factory which their father managed, to ensure bottlenecks are avoided during the peak of the harvest. Outside of the additional investment of establishing and operating an onsite factory, it is far costlier to mill and market small volume, single producer lots than large day lots from cooperatives. This investment has paid off, however, as the siblings produce exceptionally high-quality lots, and Peris is able to command excellent prices for her coffee crop each year.
Since the Kenyan government’s coffee trade reforms of 2023, we have been sourcing Peris’ coffee directly, with the help of Wycliffe Murwayi as the marketing agent. To secure direct sales, Peris has opened a USD account and is now responsible for producing the required documentation for export. The benefits of this direct sales model are higher returns for Peris, as the buyer (in this case, MCM) must offer competitive pricing to secure the coffee. In addition, Peris also receives the funds faster than she would if selling the coffee via the auction. This direct sales model also supports a more stable, 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 KIAMBU
Kiambu County is part of Kenya’s former Central Province, which was dissolved in 2013. The area includes Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Kiambu and Nyandarua Counties, and is traditionally the homeland of people of Kikiyu ethnicity. Historically, Kenya’s central highlands are 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 in 1962. This integration afforded the communities of Central Kenya with opportunities for education, business and political prowess, despite the various injustices of the colonial government. The Kikiyu people have a long and proud history of agriculture and the region is farmed intensively, with coffee, tea and dairy being the most important modern crops.
Like Peris, many of the producers in the region are second-generation landholders, whose parents purchased and planted coffee shambas in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, growers were recommended to plant SL28 and SL34, which remain the predominant varieties found in the area and make up the majority of this lot. Both cultivars have Bourbon and Moka heritage and are named after the laboratory that promoted their wider distribution in Kenya during the early 20th Century: Scott Laboratories. Farmers in Kiambu 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 lot is graded as an AB. 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 COFFEE WAS PROCESSED
During harvest, the siblings employ up to 50 local pickers who have been trained to pick only the ripest red cherry. The pickers meticulously hand sorted the cherry to remove any under ripes before processing. Pickers are paid by volume of fruit picked, or on a day rate when there isn’t much cherry to collect.
After careful hand sorting, the coffee was pulped in the late afternoon of the day it was picked, using a three-disc pulping machine, which removes the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that protects the green coffee bean.
The parchment was then dry fermented overnight, or up to 24 hours depending on the weather, to break down the sugars and remove the mucilage (sticky fruit covering) from the outside of the beans. The coffee was checked from the following morning onwards, and when it smelled ready, it was rinsed and removed from the tanks.
Using clean water from the nearby Komothai River, 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 coffee was turned constantly to ensure it was dried evenly, until it reached 11–12% humidity. To protect it from the elements and avoid condensation, all drying parchment is packed and put away during the night, and laid out to dry again in the morning.
After the coffee reached the targeted moisture content, it was transported to the local Komothai County dry mill before being processed for export. Peris and her siblings chose this particular processing site for their coffee because they offer some of the best traceability in Kiambu.
