Puchero – Kenya – Thunguri

Description

The Thunguri factory is located in Kirinyaga County, in a region of green valleys where tea and often coffee are grown. It is part of the Kibirigwi Farmers’ Cooperative, which groups a total of seven factories. Thunguri currently has about 1,500 members, each with an average of half a hectare devoted to coffee, as well as other crops such as macadamia, beans, bananas, tea and maize. The area is characterized by deep, fertile, well-drained red volcanic soil, located between 1,700 and 1,800 meters above sea level.

Thunguri produces consistently excellent quality coffees. The cherries are hand-picked by small farmers and delivered to the factory, where they are pulped. During this process, the dense beans are separated from the immature ones by flotation in water: the heavier beans sink and are channeled to the fermentation tanks.

The first fermentation lasts about 24 hours, after which the beans are washed and moved to a second fermentation tank for an additional 12 to 24 hours. At the end of this step, the beans are transferred to the Washed channels, where the remaining floats are removed and the mucilage is cleaned from the dense beans.

The washed beans are then placed in soaking tanks with clean water for an additional 24 hours. This process allows the amino acids and proteins of the cellular structure to develop, resulting in coffees with higher acidity and more complex fruity flavors. This steeping stage is believed to be key to the distinctive profiles of Kenyan coffees.

The beans are then spread out on initial drying tables in a thin layer, which helps to quickly remove about 50% of the moisture. This first drying phase usually lasts about six hours, after which the beans are grouped into thicker layers and dried for another five to ten days.

Once dry, the parchment beans are sent to a private mill and stored in warehouses on elevated metal mesh structures that allow for proper ventilation. There the humidity is reduced until it reaches a level below 11%, at which point the coffee is ready to be packaged and exported.