Kenya Sakami

About this coffee

Around the world, Kenyan coffees are some of the most coveted and buyers are used to paying higher prices for them than any other African specialty, yet most of this price goes to a corrupt auction system and farmers are both unseen and earn extremely low farm gate prices. Many young people therefore choose to abandon an undignified future in coffee farming and move to the city. The sad truth is that because of the amazing quality of Kenyan coffee we as an industry accept these high prices – keeping this system and this lack of social justice in place.
Luckily, with the help of This Side Up, we found a way to trade directly with Kenyan farmers. Kenyan entrepreneur Gloria and her Finnish husband Jarmo run Sakami Coffee, one of the most environmentally sustainable farms in the country, with a wet mill fully powered by solar panels. They grow SL28, Ruiru 11, Batian and K7 varieties according to permaculture principles and help surrounding farmers obtain better prices and processing knowledge. Following the lead of Gloria and Jarmo to a more sustainable coffee world, both financially and environmentally.

The Sakami farm is creating “agroforestry” by intercropping macadamia trees between coffee, protecting all indigenous trees in and around the farm, protecting the wetland by not interfering on it, leaving natural bush sections in and around the coffee trees, having beehives around the farm, and avoiding the use of pesticides or herbicides. All “waste” such as coffee pulp and macadamia husks are fed to earth worms and worm castings are returned back to field as manure or used to make foliar feed. Water from pulping and washing the coffee is treated in a settling pond with lime and then used to irrigate the pasture below the ponds. Next to all this, Sakami uses mineral fertilizers to replace the nutrients taken away when harvesting cherries.

Sakami’s Coffee has the typical bright fruit notes that you would expect from a Kenyan coffee, but because of more cultivars than just SL 28, and because Sakami is located in a less common terroir and climate, you find somewhat thicker body and more chocolaty, praline notes in these washed gems. Only fully ripe cherries are accepted for pulping, each cherry is hand picked by their dedicated women, up to over 100 during picking season. All this is done at the farm and only dry milling is so far done with commercial millers.

In near future Sakami intends to get dry milling equipment at the farm, to have 100% control of each green bean leaving the farm and being able to offer full growing and processing information for each bag.