Kenya has been part of Ozone's sourcing story for a long time – and for good reason. Few origins deliver the kind of clarity and complexity that Kenyan coffee does at its best: vivid fruit, bright acidity, and a structure that holds up beautifully whether you're pulling a shot or brewing a slow filter. Our green buyer Roland Glew travelled to the heart of the country's coffee belt to visit two of the producers behind that reputation: Kiriga Estate and the Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society. Here's what he found.
What makes Kenyan coffee tick
The conditions in Kenya's central highlands are close to ideal for arabica. Farms sit between 1,500 and 2,100 metres above sea level, where cooler temperatures and fertile volcanic soils slow cherry development and allow sugars and acids to build over a longer maturation period. The result is a density and complexity you can taste in the cup.
Kenya's processing culture matters just as much as its terroir. The country has long favoured the washed method – cherries are pulped, fermented, and thoroughly washed before drying – which gives Kenyan coffees their characteristic cleanliness and precision. It's a method that rewards good raw material and careful execution, which is precisely why it's suited an industry built around rigorous quality control.
On the varietal side, SL28 and SL34 remain the benchmarks. Both were developed by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in the 1930s and selected for their cup quality and drought resistance – SL28 in particular has become something of a specialty coffee icon, known for its blackcurrant-forward acidity and excellent sweetness when grown at altitude. Ruiru 11 and Batian, developed later for disease resistance, are increasingly common and capable of producing excellent results in the right hands.
Kiriga Estate
Roland's first stop was Kiriga Estate, near Thika town. It's an estate that stands out – not just for the quality of its coffee, but for its stubborn persistence. The land around Kiriga has shifted considerably in recent years, with housing developments, flower farms, and macadamia plantations steadily encroaching on what was once pure coffee country. Kiriga has held its ground.
The estate is owned and run by Brian Gakunga, who has continued the work his father began – and in doing so, made some bold calls. One of the most significant has been a deliberate shift away from the main crop season (October – December), which has historically been Kenya's primary harvest and the benchmark for quality and volume. Kiriga has moved its focus to the early crop (June – August), driven by its specific environmental conditions and the age and character of its trees. It's a transition that's now complete, with only a very small main crop still coming in – and the results are proving the decision right.
The estate has also undertaken significant stumping – cutting older trees back to encourage vigorous new growth. It's a short-term sacrifice (stumped trees take a few seasons to return to full production) but the rejuvenated plants produce at higher quality, and Brian's willingness to take that hit says a lot about where his priorities lie.
Roland also got a look at Kiriga's experimental processing work. Brian and wet mill manager Jorge had been developing the estate's first anaerobic natural lot – a significant departure from the washed coffees Kenya is known for. The ambition behind it was clear: a way to express Kiriga's terroir through a different lens, adding fermentation complexity to the estate's existing clarity and sweetness. It's the kind of initiative that keeps Kenyan coffee interesting.
Chinga Mill and the Othaya Cooperative
From Kiriga, Roland headed to Chinga Mill, part of the broader Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society. The mill sits along the banks of the Chinga River and serves around 550 active smallholders, each bringing their cherry in for processing. It's a genuinely impressive setup: beyond the wet mill itself, Othaya runs a dry mill, a QC lab, a training plantation for member farmers, and its own local roastery. Recent investment in new warehouse facilities has added to the cooperative's ability to manage coffee through the post-harvest period with care.
The cooperative model is central to how most Kenyan coffee reaches the market. Smallholders – who typically farm just one or two acres – deliver cherry to a wet mill (often called a "factory" in Kenya), where it's processed collectively. The cooperative structure is supposed to give small-scale growers the collective bargaining power and infrastructure they couldn't access individually. In practice, how well it works has depended enormously on governance.
The reform picture
When Roland visited, Kenya's coffee sector was mid-reform – a period of genuine uncertainty about how the changes would play out in practice. The government had launched a significant overhaul of the sector, targeting the exploitative middlemen who had long profited between farmers and the market, and pushing for better transparency at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.
Two years on, the direction of travel looks more settled. The Direct Settlement System at the NCE now disperses payments to farmers within 48 hours of sale, replacing a system where waiting four months was normal. Cooperatives have been given direct market access. And the Cooperative Bill 2024 – passed by Kenya's National Assembly in December 2024 and working its way through the Senate as of early 2025 – aims to lock in better governance and accountability structures across the sector, with specific protections for coffee farmers around fair pricing and timely payments.
Kenya's production volumes remain well below their historical peak – output dropped significantly from its late-1980s high of around 130,000 metric tonnes, though ambitious government targets and new investment are aiming to reverse that trend. The structural changes underway are designed to make farming more viable and to restore trust in the cooperative system. For specialty buyers like us, a more transparent, farmer-first supply chain is genuinely good news.
Kenya remains one of the most exciting origins we work with. The combination of exceptional terroir, deep processing knowledge, and producers like Brian Gakunga who are willing to experiment and invest long-term is what keeps it that way. We'll keep travelling, keep tasting, and keep sharing what we find.