Kenyan coffee beans are known through the world as some of the greatest coffee you can buy. It is famous for its intensity, acidity, and incredible aroma. It is in many ways the perfect coffee to try drinking black without adding anything. Why? Because it’s sophisticated flavor profile should be given a chance before it is morphed!
The coffee industry is an important part of Kenya’s economy, and coffee is a key export product for the country.
Kenyan coffee is grown in the high-altitude plateaus surrounding Mount Kenya, which provides the ideal conditions for coffee cultivation. The rich volcanic soil, combined with the high altitude, allows the coffee plants to develop slowly and produce beans with a rich flavor and unique characteristics.
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How To Make Kenyan Coffee
In terms of brewing and serving, Kenyan coffee can be prepared using different methods, including drip coffee makers, French presses, and pour-over methods. The coffee is typically served black or with a small amount of milk or sugar to enhance its natural flavors.
We tend to recommend that Kenyan coffee is made using a french press and a burr grinder.
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Instructions:
- Start by heating water in a kettle to around 200°F (93°C).
- While the water is heating up, measure out the desired amount of coffee beans, usually around 1 to 2 tablespoons of coffee per cup of water.
- Grind the coffee beans using a burr grinder to a medium-coarse consistency. The coarseness is important for a French press as it allows for proper extraction and a smooth flavor.
- Once the water has reached the desired temperature, pour it into the French press to warm it up.
- Discard the water from the French press and add the ground coffee into the carafe.
- Pour hot water over the coffee grounds and stir to ensure all the coffee is wet. Let it steep for about 4 minutes.
- Press the plunger down slowly, separating the brewed coffee from the grounds.
- Pour into a mug and enjoy. Kenyan coffee is typically served black or with a small amount of milk or sugar to enhance its natural flavors.
Tips:
- To get the best flavor from Kenyan coffee, use high-quality, fresh beans that have been recently roasted.
- Be sure to use filtered water to avoid any impurities that could affect the taste of the coffee.
- Adjust the amount of coffee and water used based on your preference for the strength of the coffee. Generally use 1 to 2 tablespoons of coffee per cup of water.
Our Favorite Kenyan Coffee Brand
Kenyan coffee is known for it’s complex, acidic, floral, and a fruity flavors as their coffee is grown right around the 5,000 ft / 1500 m mark high up in the mountains.
When coffee is initially ground from a whole bean, the grounds themselves are exposed to the air. This means an increased surface area for the coffee to interact and simultaneously exchange unintended flavors. The aromas of the coffee bean reacts and oxidizes and around 60% of that aroma and flavor is lost within about 15-20 minutes after grinding.
But none of this means much if the coffee is roasted, ground, and sitting on the shelf in a warehouse for several months. It essentially means you aren’t getting what you paid for, but it is why we are big fans of Peet’s Kenya Auction Lot coffee.
While Peet’s is well known for its variety of coffees, they are also known for their roasting and shipping process. For instance, when you place an order that coffee is then roasted, sealed in its bag, and shipped frequently on the same day. That’s kind of a big deal when you consider that so much of the flavor is lost so rapidly!
If you take our advice with Peet’s Kenyan coffee, be sure to order the whole bean variant from their site. It will ensure those aromas and flavors will be yours to enjoy!
High Altitude Kenyan Coffee
Kenyan coffee is grown at high elevations giving it a Strictly High Grown SHG and Strictly Hard Bean SHB rating.
Coffee grown at high elevation and in cooler temperatures slows the growth cycle. This allows the plant more time to mature, therefore producing intense flavors that give Kenyan coffee its notoriety. It is why so many coffees from around the world pride themselves in stating high elevation farming. These beans are top of the line because they are more expensive to grow, yet the body and aroma from these beans give it incredible value to coffee lovers.
The harder coffee bean offers its own advantages as well. As the coffee bean is grown slower and over longer periods of time, it allows the bean to form a resilient shell and a dense inner bean that does a good job to retain flavor when in storage.