Ndimaini FCS is based in Nyeri County, on the southernmost foothills of Mt. Kenya. This is Karatina District, near the town of Mathira, where this coffee was collected, processed and milled. In 2014 members of Ndimaini were cheated by a marketing agent who took possession of their coffee, but never delivered on the sale. Since then the group has switched agents and rebuilt their leadership. Now, Simon (Chairman), Josephine (V. Chairwoman), Esther (Cherry Secretary) and Benson (Treasurer) are working hard for their members, and to prove that quality pays. Join us in rooting for this co-op and help us fulfill this promise.
When you ask a supplier for receipts and they point you to a special software they use for cherry collection, you get a good feeling for their level of sophistication. And to be sure, organizational capacity is paramount when that Cooperative manages 1,500 active members across two factories. So it should be no surprise that this group was able to experiment with us. Uniquely, Ndimani’s coffee undergoes an hour-long preferment, followed by 16-18 hours of traditional fermentation, then 1-2 hours on drying tables before being washed and dried. This 1-2 hours of drying time is called ‘skin drying’; the heat helps to arrest fermentation. Unlike most, Ndimani chooses not to soak parchment – which may be why we found such punchy currant and blue fruit notes in their coffees.