Ngerwe, Christmas Edition

An intense and fruity coffee from Embu in Kenya, with notes of blackberry, blackcurrants and rose hips.

This is our first encounter with coffee from the Ngerwe wet mill. It was among my absolute favourite lots that i tasted during my annual buying trip in Kenya in February 2026.

When I tasted this coffee it took me back to my first buying trip to Kenya in 2008. Back then the high quality coffees were in abundance and they all tasted intensely of blackcurrant.

Since then the quality has gradually changed because of many factors like re-placing the SL cultivars with more resilient hybrids like Batian and Ruiru 11. Hotter climate has also lead to more disease on the trees, shorter fermentation times and faster ripening of coffee cherries. All these factors affect flavour, yield and quality.

But every now and then I come across coffees in Kenya that have intense blackcurrant flavours and this year one of those coffees came from Ngerwe.

This coffee has a winey acidity that I believe come from prolonged fermentation that used to be the traditional way of fermenting in Kenya.

The intense ripe fruity flavours of blackcurrants, rose hips & blackberries and its refreshing acidity makes this a really nice coffee to drink alone or after a heavy Christmas dinner.