Coffee Varieties In Kenya

Today the kenyan landscape is dominated by five popular coffee varieties.

Coffee varieties in kenya. The crisis sparked action. The coffee industry of kenya is noted for its cooperative system of production processing milling marketing and auction system. Sl28 sl34 k7 ruiru 11 and batian. The differences are not all due to processing however as regions such as sidamo yirgacheffe and harrar have become storied for their terroir and the individual flavors of their coffees.

First scott laboratories identified the now famous sl 28 and sl 34 in the 1930s. The perfect coffee plant. Coffee varieties are the diverse subspecies derived through selective breeding or natural selection of coffee plants while there is tremendous variability encountered in both wild and cultivated coffee plants there are a few varieties and cultivars that are commercially important due to various unique and inherent traits such as disease resistance and fruit yield. Although coffee s birthplace ethiopia is just next door it took 500 years before kenyan coffee varieties started to develop their juicy coffee cherries.

About 70 of kenyan coffee is produced by small scale holders. Ruiru 11 owes its existence to a coffee berry disease cbd epidemic in 1968 that lead to the loss of 50 of kenya s production. Many farms experienced increased difficulties with scourges of clr and cbd as the coffee sector developed. Arabica coffee beans are typically grown in places with higher altitude such as costa rica or colombia or kenya brazil hence there flavour is of high quality.

However despite being more resistant to coffee leaf rust clr and coffee berry disease cbd than french bourbon sl varieties are still quite susceptible. Ruiru 11 is a compact high yielding variety developed in kenya to allow for more intensive coffee production with fewer losses from diseases and pests. They combine stunning flavour with drought resistance. Coffee made a detour around the globe before entering kenya.

In this blog. Another thing that you need to know is the two types of coffee beans that are used to make coffee. First of all of course we grow arabica coffee in kenya and there are about four or fives varieties that you might come across with kenyan coffees. Soon sl varieties were ubiquitous across kenya.