Lolly Drop Espresso

Ndia-ini was formerly part of the Rumukia Farmer’s Cooperative Society, who I’ve bought from for over a decade, but Ndia-ini itself is a new purchase for us. I’m excited for them this season because the profile is unique and interesting. It’s both candy-like and floral at the same time, a combination that is very rare and worth celebrating and enthusiastically enjoying.

A bit about Ndia-ini: they serve 1512 members and 558 of those delivered cherry this past harvest. They received 247 metric tonnes of cherry, which translates to roughly 600 bags of coffee. Their variety mix is 70 percent SL28 and SL34, 10 percent Batian, and 20 percent Ruiru 11.

The story of Ndia-ini is a reminder of how difficult it is to keep larger co-ops together over the long run. Ndia-ini was part of Rumukia, who operated their own dry mill, but the co-op eventually ran into financial challenges and couldn’t hold together. The good news for us, and for you, is that Ndia-ini began working with the Othaya dry mill to finish processing their coffee, and that partnership really locks in the quality.

The Othaya dry mill excels because of its naturally high altitude, which provides cool storage conditions, and because of their finely tuned and precise processing equipment. Othaya also helped found a cooperative-owned exporter called Kenya Cooperative Coffee Exporters (KCCE).

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