Lolly Drop Espresso

Joyce Wambui Mwangi, the mild-mannered successor to former manager superstar Daniel Kingori, is in a select club (pictured is Daniel because Joyce asked not to be photographed). Not just for managing one of the top factories in Nyeri, but also as one of the few female factory managers. Given the male dominance of the profession, she has had to work very hard to earn her stripes. Thankfully, she was trained by the best: Daniel Kingori, undoubtedly one of my favorite coffee people.

During his tenure, Daniel brought the Mahiga factory to the top of all Othaya Co-op’s 19 factories (though only 14 are active), and he still delivers his 2,000 kg of coffee cherry to Mahiga each year. That’s right, Kingori is a coffee farmer too!

The 2024/25 season marked Joyce’s second year as factory manager, and I’ve been very impressed that she has managed to maintain the quality trajectory that Kingori set in motion.

So what makes Mahiga so special?

There is plenty of great coffee in Kenya, but what sets Mahiga apart is its dense sweetness and tropical flavor, lifted with a touch of fresh tomato. It is intense and perfumed, yet balanced with a thick, velvety mouthfeel. It helps greatly that most of the coffee destined for Mahiga is the SL34 variety, widely considered the best variety Kenya has to offer.

As for Othaya Co-op in general, their superpower is vertical integration. While some factories change their marketing agent or milling partner from season to season, Othaya operates its own mill and even founded a cooperative-owned marketing agency to market and export their coffee. This entity is called Kenya Cooperative Coffee Exporters (KCCE).

What I love about KCCE is their fully transparent pricing structure. They take a fixed 2% fee from the total price paid by buyers. This stands in stark contrast to other marketing agents and exporters, who take varying—and non-transparent—amounts from each coffee sale.