Our first Kenyan arrival is here! We get juicy Pear, Lemon Candy, and Berry Shortcake. Kainamui Factory is situated in the Ngariama region of the Gichugu Division of Kirinyaga County. It was established in 1963, on the slopes of Mount Kenya. It has 2,000 members, 1,200 of whom are men and 800 who are women. These producers have very small farms, with an average of only 200 trees each. Members handpick their coffee and deliver it to the wet mill for pulping. There, the flotation system separates dense beans from immature ‘mbuni’s (floaters), letting the denser beans sink and the heavier ones flow through channels to the fermentation tank. This first stage of fermentation lasts about 24 hours, after which the beans are washed and sent to the secondary fermentation tank for 12-24 hours. Once fermentation is complete, the beans enter the washing channels where floaters are separated further and the dense beans cleaned of mucilage. The washed beans then enter soaking tanks where they sit under clean water for another 24 hours. This soaking process allows amino acids and proteins in the cellular structure of each bean to develop, resulting in more acidity and complex fruit flavors—a quality that distinctively identifies Kenyan coffee. The beans are laid on the initial drying tables in a thin layer, lowering moisture levels to around 50%. This first drying stage lasts about 6 hours before the beans are gathered and laid in thicker layers for the remaining 5-10 days of the drying period, where they’re dried to shelf-stable moisture levels for export. The dry parchment is then delivered to a private mill and put to rest in “bodegas” (raised cells made of chicken wire to ensure the necessary air circulation). Kainamui coffee factory has maintained an incredible level of production, both in terms of quality and quantity. However, there is a notable decline in its total production for the last 2 years, which may involve ecological factors among others. In line with the rising awareness on environmental conservation, the factory has dug wastewater soak pits far from their water source where the waste water is allowed to soak in back to the soil. Though lacking a wastewater treatment plant, management actively encourages tree planting among its members. Kainamui washing station is located in the buffer zone surrounding Mount Kenya National Park. Mount Kenya is an extinct volcano and the second highest snow-capped peak in Africa (5,199 masl), after Kilimanjaro. The presence of this snowy mountain in Kirinyaga (the name of which actually means “White Mountain” in the native Kekuyu language) plays a fundamental role for the population and coffee of the surrounding areas, feeding many of Kenya’s rivers with clean, cold water. These glacier-fed rivers help cool the surrounding areas, giving the farms in the county an annual temperature between 13 and 25 C—privileged temperatures compared to other coffee-growing areas in Africa.