Juicebox Series ~ Thunguri AA from Kirinyaga, Kenya
US$0.00
Producers: smallholders organized around Thunguri washing station
Place: Kirinyaga, Kenya
Varieties: SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, Batian
Processing: Washed
Importer: Royal
Harvest: Dec-Jan 2022/23
Tasting notes: mango, blackberry, juniper
Mango, blackberry and an interesting little dose of juniper, describes this field blend of SL28, SL34, Ruiru11 & Batian from the various smallholders who deliver to Thunguri washing station in Kirinyaga, Kenya.
Sorted as an AA, these heftily-sized fruits are meticulously processed & are a joy to have as a continuation of our Juicebox Series.
Processing
Only the ripest cherries are delivered, and additional hand sorting and floating is done to remove less dense and damaged fruit before the coffee is depulped, fermented, and washed.
After the coffee is washed, it’s soaked in fresh water for long periods – This process is often called Double Washed or Kenya process, and contributes to the quality through equalizing the seeds moisture before going to the drying tables.
The lot is dried for up to two weeks on raised beds, which are carefully constructed to ensure proper air circulation and temperature control for optimal drying, contained within the newly installed solar dryer system described above. When the coffee is milled for export, the green beans are sorted by screen size and graded according to size and shape. Larger beans (17/18 screen) are labelled AA (like this one from Thunguri), 15/16 screen are labelled AB, and the round peaberry are labelled PB, there are also other grades that you don’t often see exported.
Water
We brew all our coffees with municipal water that flows from our taps in Metro Vancouver. This municipal source is very soft, low ppm water (around 30 TDS)
There are many alternative water recipes out there that will produce tasty cups if your water from the tap isn’t giving you good results. A good place to start is 1/2 strength Third Wave Water of around 60-70ppm (0.16g.-0.2g./L of TWW powder).
Brewing
We make an effort to taste our coffees in a variety of ways, but mostly use cupping, V60, and Kalita 155 brews as our main ways of quality control and dialling in roast profiles. Our filter recipes can be found in our Journal here:
Espresso
Roasted with filter coffee in mind, expect shots that are lighter in body and brighter in acidity than your typical espresso profile.
Thunguri AA makes shots that are bright with flavours of resinous blackberry and mango along with a nice brown sugar finish to round it all out. Best as straight espresso and filter coffee.
Starting spec: 18g:45g in 25 sec. on 9bar profile @93C