Kenya | Kagumo | SL28/SL34 Natural
Product details
| Management number | 253652572 | Release Date | 2026/10/24 | List Price | CA$8.80 | Model Number | 253652572 | ||
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Kagumo Factory
Kagumo Factory has processed coffee from Nyeri's deep red, phosphorus-rich volcanic soils for decades - the site first opened in the mid-1950s as a sisal factory. Today the Aguthi Farmers' Co-operative Society at Kagumo represents 501 farmer members, 175 of them women, farming over 100,000 trees across 186 acres at around 1,770m.
Good natural drainage, temperatures between 15 and 27C and around 1,090mm of rain a year grow hardy trees with sweet, mature cherries. The factory won awards for best grading and highest production in the late 1990s and continues to produce beautiful coffees today.
Natural Process
Picked cherries are hand sorted by colour and separated by ripeness, then dried whole on raised beds for 20-30 days until moisture drops to 10-12%. The coffee rests in its dried cherry pod until milling and export.
Naturals are rare from Kenya, where washed coffee dominates. Drying in the cherry swaps some of the classic Kenyan sparkle for body and sweetness - round and creamy, with raspberry, blueberry and cranberry over caramel, milk chocolate, toffee and a hint of cola.
About the SL28 & SL34 Varieties
SL28 and SL34 were selected in the 1930s by Scott Agricultural Laboratories in Nairobi, which is where the 'SL' comes from. SL28 was bred from drought-resistant Tanzanian stock, while SL34 traces back to French Mission Bourbon trees at Kabete. Together they became the backbone of Kenyan specialty coffee and remain the varieties most smallholders in Nyeri grow today.
Both are tall, low-yielding trees that need careful farming, but roasters around the world seek them out for their intense, juicy acidity and deep red-fruit and blackcurrant character. SL28 tends to bring the vivid, sparkling fruit; SL34 adds body and sweetness at high altitude.
Roasted for espresso, this natural keeps the varieties' berry character but leans into a creamy, chocolate-and-caramel body that holds up beautifully in milk.
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