In any scenario, there is a very long wet fermentation step. This can potentially impart the coffee with flavors that a Latin America style quick fermentation would avoid. What I'd heard was that the rest between the two washings of Kenyan coffee could be responsible for savory or umami characteristics. But I can't find a source after a couple minutes of Googling.

Of course, there are a variety of processes used in Kenya that are often clumped under the term "Kenya process," but many of them produce flavors that you wouldn't get from SL 28 and 34 processed otherwise.

Anyway, whether it's processing or just bean density that produces that characteristic, I'm liking a fair bit of development for this coffee.

hi everyone! super excited to join in the fray (especially since kenya was the first origin that i fell in love with ). i'm fairly new to home roasting, having just 6 months on my quest m3. anyway, here are two profiles that i ran today on this coffee:

Karimikui AA #1 - roasted 14th June
Dry/Ramp/Development: 4:33 / 3:51 / 2:09
Development-time ratio: 20%
FC: 199.4C @ 8:24 (390.9F)
Finish: 208.5C @ 10:33 (407.3F)
weight loss: 13.2%



Karimikui AA #2 - roasted 14th June
Dry/Ramp/Development: 4:33 / 3:39 / 2:00
Development-time ratio: 19%
FC: 200.5C @ 8:12
Finish: 208.1C @ 10:12
weight loss: 13.3%



for the second roast i was gunning for a 8:00 FC but clearly didn't quite succeed in being more aggressive. first impressions though, #1 seems to have a juicier smell and acidity (i dry-cupped both roasts) and possibly a hint of florals, but i can't be sure till i cup. will update with full cupping notes once i have them!

I brewed my first two attempts this morning. Both were roasted Thursday evening, so about 2½ days' rest.
#1, 3:20/5:10/3.25, 412°F, 11:45 (longer development, lower drop temp)


#2, 2:50/4:40/3:35, 420°F, 11:05 (shorter development, higher drop temp)


I brewed these in Aeropress, 10g/150ml. Both were very fresh tasting, tea-like and balanced, although I could not distinguish individual fruit characteristics. But not lemony at all. I guess I would say the flavors are integrated -- combined pleasantly but not distinguishable (to me). I also am not getting any savory-meaty-tomatoey-whatever, which for my taste is a good thing. #1 had a slight mintyness that faded as the cup cooled. #2, however, developed a similar minty flavor as it cooled. Kenya coffees are always a challenge for me to roast. Whether it is the nature of Kenya coffee or my roaster or my lack of skill that makes it difficult for me, I am not sure. But this is the best result I have ever gotten with a Kenya.

I also found this coffee more forgiving than some others that I recently roasted.

Overall, this coffee has been fantastic in the cup. For the last week, we have primarily brewed this coffee using an AeroPress and a single cup pour over (V60). Results have been consistently good. Although, I found the coffee having a tart flavor that dabbles between tasting like grapefruit and a sweet orange. From what little roasting experience I've had, I agree with johnny4lsu. This bean has been extremely forgiving. Light to dark, and slow to fast, it has been really enjoyable.

I roasted 2 batches this past Thursday. I intended to imitate a fast and hot approach like others. For this first batch, I assumed when the bean temperature flat lined that I would get undesirable taste qualities in the cup. So I ran batch 2 through and applied more heat in an effort to avoid the flat line. Also, these batches are a little slower than I originally intended, but faster than what I normally do.


Batch 1
Cupping notes 6/12:
Orange citrus, bright, good mouth feel, tart
Cupping notes 6/14:
Sweet, berry, creamy, buttery mouthfeel, bright, balanced, orange


Batch 2
Cupping notes 6/12:
Orange citrus, bright, nice body, good mouth feel, well balanced
Cupping notes 6/14:
Sweet, tart, acidic, tangy, bright

These 2 batches were so close in taste that it's hard to say which is better. Personally, I want to lean on batch 2. I found that it was slightly less tart, but am afraid my perception is somewhat biased even though I maintained tasting these coffees completely blind. However, my girlfriend liked the first batch more.

I brewed my 3rd profile again this morning and wow.. Grapefruit city. Maybe even a little too much.

Hoping to brew and compare all 4 roasts this evening.

Broke up my last pound of this coffee into 2 roasts. I've always done one pound roasts so I'm learning as I go and unfortunately I didn't hit my goal of 5 minutes between 300F and first crack. The shots are good again- "mild" feels like an appropriate overall description. Brightness is the dominant feature but not to the point of being unpleasant. There's a surprising amount of body and pleasingly lengthy aftertaste. It's also very sweet, as was my first attempt. The reason I call it mild is because no matter how tight I pull the shot, for instance 18g with a 25g yield, it still tastes mild, lacks that lipsmacking intensity that makes me want to pull another shot asap. That's very unlike the usual shots with that dose and yield, as you could imagine. Another thing that makes me want to adjust the timings is the grind has to be very fine and even then the shots go blond in about 20-22 seconds. I fear innadequate development in the first two phases. The same sort of recipe with say a Guatemala or Sumatra SO would yield a 28 second/30ish gram shot jam packed with deliciousness.
The last roast is resting- for that one I also failed in my goal of a 5 minute ramp so I decided to give it 4 minutes of development. A couple more days and I'll pull some shots with that. Here's the profile for the second roast:

Just had to try a shot of the last batch- delicious! By far my favorite of the three roasts. The acidity is way down with the 4 minute stretch and the body way up. Cocoa powder chocolate, tiny hint of orange acidity, very rich overall. Love it. A much better balance between acidity and body for shots, but the sweetness is still there. Opening the jar of roasted beans releases just about the best/strongest'/sweetest aroma ever
Again I failed at drawing out 5 minutes from 300F to first crack- so as good as these shots are they have lots of room for improvement.

I had a cup from my 2nd profile this morning and it was underwhelming. It did not age well at all. I'm still trying to find a few minutes to taste all 4 together.

ETA: it may have been my brewing this morning at the office. I'll revisit it at home with my bunnzilla

I had a cup from my 2nd profile this morning and it was underwhelming.

Similar experience here after a few more days. So far I liked the 3-day rest better than the 5-day. Some of the delicateness has faded and some savoriness has emerged. Perhaps not a fair comparison though, because today's brew was 600ml in Chemex, whereas the previous one was 150ml in Aeropress (although the brew ratio was the same). I'm sure it will change again as it rests longer, so I'm looking forward to see what happens.