Kenya Kiambu Crown Jewel

Intro

Our Kenya Kiambu is a stellar, certified organic Kenyan coffee from the Muiri Estate. It's super rare to find organic coffees in Kenya, so this rare gem not only checks the box of being delicious, but also of being certified.

The Muiri Estate is in Kiambu, just north of Nairobi but a little south of the more frequently seen specialty producing regions of Nyeri, Kirinyaga, and Embu. The Kenya Kiambu is well balanced with acidity notes of orange juice and cranberry, but without being overwhelming. A clean and lovely delivery from Kenya, and one you're sure to enjoy.

Roast

We roasted the Kenya Kiambu to a nice medium roast. Depending on the grind and with proper brewing, this Kenya Crown Jewel can produce notes of Citrus, Pineapple, Hibiscus, Melon, Plum, Chocolate and Floral all the way to Melon, Plum, Peach, Caramel, Honey, Sweet Tea and Violet notes.

Brewing

Finer grind yields a more tart coffee with some floral notes, while a coarser grind highlights stone fruits and sugar browning flavors.

As with most Top-Shelf coffees, we suggest using the pour-over method to maximized the aroma and flavor of this Crown Jewel coffee using a 1:16 coffee to water ratio with the water between 200F and 205F. Once grounds are placed in the filter, pre-soak grounds by covering with water for ~30sec to allow for blooming, then finish with either a steady pour or a couple of short pours to complete the brewing process.

Brew Observations

Brew Observation by Royal Coffee
“Pick two numbers,” I asked our barista Ruthie Knudsten. Ruthie joined The Crown team to help launch our Tasting Room back in January of this year. “9 and 10,” she responded.

I took two Chemexes (chemi?) and adjusted one parameter: grind size. I chose our trusty trade-show brew profile – 40g of coffee, 640g of water and adjusted the grind size on the EK43 to 9 and 10. It resulted in two pretty different brews, both great. Dialing in coffee often requires some pretty great guess work. While I wouldn’t recommend simply picking two numbers out of a hat, it’s not a bad place to start. And with a coffee like this, you cannot go wrong.

The finer grind yielded a tart coffee with some floral notes, while the coarser grind highlighted stone fruits and sugar browning flavors.

Producer Background

Kenya Kiambu Muiri Estate Double Washed Raised Bed Organic Crown Jewel is sourced from the Muiri Estate located in Kiambu County, Kenya. Muiri Estate has over 443 acres of land with 216 in use for coffee cultivation intercropped with over 200 species of trees totaling more than 90,000, which includes grevillea and eucalyptus trees. Additional land has been set aside and shared with 1,000 local families to cultivate beans. The estate has its own wet-mill where cherry selection, depulping, fermentation, washing, and drying are meticulously executed. When coffee is milled for export, the green beans are sorted by screen size and graded according to size and shape. The beans from the 15/16 screen are labeled AB.