KENYA | THAMBANA KIUNGU WASHED | LIGHT ROAST

Thambana Farmers Co-operative Society is situated in Embu county, near Embu town. The soil in the area is very fertile and the location is very close to the Mount Kenya forest. The cooperative has two factories, called Kiungu and Kathima. There are over 800 local farmers delivering coffee to the processing station.

After being harvested, all the cherries undergo hand sorting. During this process, all the under- and overripe as well as defective cherries are sorted out. After pulping, the parchment is fermented overnight and then “washed” the next day. This removes the sticky mucilage from the bean but also enables the cooperative to grade the parchment by density. By the end of this process, the parchment has been graded into P1, P2, P3 and P lights.

Most of the farmers collect the coffee pulp from the factories and use it to produce a natural fertiliser for their coffee trees. Besides coffee, the farmers have been advised to diversify their crop by cultivating banana, macadamia, avocado and mango to provide income throughout the year.