Karagoto AA

kah-rah-GOH-toh

CO-OP: Various Small Holders

LOCATION: Karatina, Nyeri, Kenya

ALTITUDE: 1700-1800 MASL

VARIETY: Ruiru 11, Batian, SL-28, SL-34

PROCESSES: WASHED

Tasting Notes: Grapefruit, Mandarin, Raw Sugar, Green Tea

The Karagoto Factory is made up of smallholders with an average farm size of half a hectare. It has over 1,700 members supplying cherry. Karagoto is located in the Karatina region in Nyeri County, between the elegant Mount Kenya and the Aberdare range.

Karatina farms have 2 harvest seasons: the late crop running from late September to mid-January contributes about 70% of total annual production, and the early crop running from April to July contributes about 30%. This factory grows predominately SL 28 and SL 34 varieties, as well as Ruiru and Batian in smaller amounts. 

Harvesting is carried out by careful hand selection when the coffee cherries are perfectly ripe and is delivered same-day to the Karagoto wet mill. Karagoto carries out additional cherry sorting to ensure only the very best cherries are used. After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight to break down the sugars before traveling through channels to the soaking tank where it’s carefully cleaned, soaked, and spread out on raised drying tables. Time on the drying tables depends on climate, ambient temperature, and total production volume undergoing processing, though it can take 13 to 14 days.  Continuous sorting and hand turning of the parchment is key throughout the drying process.  Climate change has made the process unpredictable in recent years with unusually hot and dry spells or unexpected rainfall, though the gradual introduction of greenhouse-like solar dryers in the region to house the drying beds has helped farmers navigate the challenges of the changing climate.  If coffee is dried too quickly, it may taste hollow, while drying too slowly will increase the chance of spoilage.  
The coffee farms are very close to the washing station (20 minutes maximum), so farmers usually transport their coffee on motorbikes. Sometimes, the washing station hires a truck to go from farm to farm and collect coffee instead.

Karagoto is run by a factory manager who oversees all activities within the factory. Together with other staff members they carry out duties such as weighing coffee, selection and grading of coffee, paying farmers, and addressing farmers’ issues.
The predominant population are the Kikuyu, the oldest native population in the area which contains several tribes. Most people marry within their tribe. Everyone in the area speaks Kikuyu but the communities have small dialect differences.

The farms here are mostly very small (1-2 hectares) and adults work the farms while children attend school all day. Schools here cost money, which unfortunately limits access to education and future opportunities in this mostly-poor area. Due to lack of opportunity, much of the young population is migrating en masse to cities in search of better jobs, leaving their parents alone on the farms or even taking their parents and abandoning their farms. This problem gets worse each year. But some producers remain hopeful that coffee can provide good business opportunities for their children.