KENYA | MAGUTA CM NATURAL | LIGHT ROAST

• COUNTRY: KENYA
  REGION: NYERI & EMBU
  WASHING STATION: MAGUTA ESTATE MILL 
  OWNER: DAVID NGIBUINI
  LOT: #196
  ELEVATION: 1650-1800 m.a.s.l
  VARIETAL: SL28 & SL34
  PROCESS: CARBONIC MACERATION NATURAL 
  IMPORTER: PROJECT ORIGIN
  
  
• CUPPING NOTES:
  BLACKBERRY JAM
  POMEGRANATE
  RASPBERRY DROPS

• LIGHT ROAST
  FOR POUR OVER AND FILTER COFFEE

ABOUT THE WASHING STATION / REGION

The Maguta Coffee Estate, run by David Ngibuini. David works across Nyeri and Embu counties in Central Kenya and produces some of the most classically extraordinary Kenyan coffee you can access, using both traditional and non-traditional processing methods.

The Murware Farmers who deliver their cherries to this Estate possess a team spirit and assist each other to maintain their farming standards. This group is a fast-growing cluster of farmers in the Muruguru area with a collective 18,000 trees growing coffee cherries on red volcanic soils. 

The Maguta Estate contains enough materials to process coffee to a high quality that allows the producers and farmers to be paid a better income. It has 10 fermentation tanks, 3 shaded parabolic drying tables each with a 1-tonne capacity, an all-concrete fermentation room, Brix meter, pH meter, and more to help improve the processing quality. Project Origin and Maguta Estate continues to collaborate on their signature carbonic maceration processing techniques, producing a sustainable offering of high-quality coffees each harvest. 

In most recent harvests, Project Origin and David have been working towards nitrogen flushed processing techniques that can really influence the tactile and mouthfeel of the cup, as well as provide clarity and intensify flavours. These techniques are helping Project Origin take the Kenyan profiles we know and love, and refining them, ultimately raising the perceived quality of these cups, increasing their value, and strengthening the work of David’s community.

Recently, the Kenyan coffee sector has slowly declined in production due to farmers moving away from coffee production to alternative cash crops, a decision driven by the poor payments to the farmers for their work. By working with Maguta Estate, Project Origin hope to help them reach their goals of empowering the communities and improving their livelihoods by building the resources they need to increase their coffee quality, and therefore, increase the prices of the cherries they work to produce.