Kenya Kericho County – Zocalo Coffee

Kenya Kericho County is the latest coffee I’ve tried as part of my Crema.co playlist. I love that from every coffee Crema.co has information not only about the coffee itself, but the farm that grew it and the roaster that roasted it. Here’s a little bit about this coffee from the Crema.co website that encouraged me to give it a try: “380 women-owned farms collected in the Kabnge’tuny Women in Coffee Association. Female farmers in Kenya rarely own land or coffee bushes, despite contributing up to 70 – 80% of the labor required to plant, grow and harvest coffee. Kabnge’tuny Women in Coffee Association was started in 2015 to empower women coffee farmers in the Kapkiyai Cooperative to earn an income independent from their husbands for the first time.”¹ It is also roasted by Zocalo Coffee, a women-owned roaster from California I had yet to have a chance to try before.

The coffee begins with a sweet, marshmallowy and slightly chocolate fragrance that bursted with some citrus tartness at the bloom. In the flavor I tasted a lot of lemon citrus, grapefruit and chocolate notes. The acidity was quite bright and tart and reminded me of biting into a piece of grapefruit. The sweetness became more pronounced as the coffee cooled and carried through the citrus tartness, reminding me almost of lemon drops. There wasn’t a lot of evolution in the flavor or complexity in its depth, but there was a nice change from what I smelled in the fragrance and aroma to what I tasted in the flavor notes.

The Bottom Line

This wasn’t the best Kenyan coffee I’ve had recently, but it was still quite good. It is always fun to try a new roaster and support a coffee that is grown fairly and supports the farmers who worked so hard to produce it.