We're definitely using the term 'farm tour' loosely... So we're not hopping on a plane and walking through Charles' beautiful estate in Eastern Kenya. But what we can do is taste our way around his farm 🤭
A few months back, our importing partner Jamii had a shipment of freshly harvested Kenyan coffees arrive. Since then, we've been roasting up and offering what we called 'Lot 18' (read a lil bit about this coffee here). We swooped another lot from that shipment, and as Lot 18 runs out, we'll start offering Lot 49.
Same farm, same harvest year, but different lot. Lot of info here, so let us explain..
This coffee comes with the following code attached to it - 49MM1009AB. And there's a lot of transparency information communicated through that code:
49 - Kenya's coffee year begins in October, and this number represents the week in which this lot was milled and prepped for export. 49 weeks after the start of the coffee year might make this lot sound old, but as we've written about in the past, 'old' coffee does not necessarily mean bad coffee. Additionally, this number tells us a little bit about when it was harvested. Not all coffee ripens at the same time on the tree. This 49 tells us that the cherries that were harvested for this lot ripened and were picked towards the end of the season. So, this 'farm tour' is a tour through space and time 🔮
MM - This is the code for the milling company, called Meru Milling Factory. This is where the coffee is milled, cleaned and sorted for export.
1009 - It must have been a busy week at the mill, because this number keeps track of each lot as it passes through the mill, counting up from 1 and restarting each week. So, on the 49th week of Kenya's coffee year, this lot was the 1,009th milled lot. We thought we were busy in the roastery..
AB - This refers to the grade, or size, of the beans. In Kenya, AA represents larger beans, and at the other end of the spectrum, PB, or peaberries, represent the cutest little beans. AB is situated just after AA, so just a little bit smaller. Some believe that the larger the bean, the higher the quality. While this is true in many cases, there are many exceptions to this pattern. This size separation is part of the process that this coffee goes through at the Meru Mill.
Let's remind ourselves where we started this farm tour... Our previous Lot 18 had the following code: 18MM0001AB. So, this lot was harvested and milled much earlier in the year (18th week), and was first in line that week at the mill.
Give this new coffee a try, and see how it compares to our previous Kenyan offering. Where we were getting black tea, grapefruit and acai notes from Lot 18, Lot 49 is serving a juicier cup that reminds us of pomegranate and macadamia nut, with some lemony zesty acidity to round things out. Same bean size, same estate, different coffee.