Farmer Organization
While a LOT of energy has gone into improving processing over the years, something that is equally, if not more important, is helping farmers organize themselves. Since Kinini has launched just a few years ago, 7 new cooperatives have formed. Patrick, a member of Kinini’s leadership team who does so many jobs it’s difficult to put a title on him, spends at least 3 days a week visiting farmers and assisting them not only with their agronomy and farm management questions but also assisting them in organizing as a group. For context , this level of investment is at complete odds with other washing stations in the area who are all too happy to be dealing with individual smallholders. The cooperative that produces the Kinini Village AA lot that we buy is called the Cooperative Coffee Rusiga Sector, which is a group made up of 100% women and run by a women named Seraphina. Jacquie, one of the co-founders of Kinini calls Seraphina “someone not to be messed with”, which is high praise coming from Jacquie, and one of the main reasons for the collective buy-in on quality by the group.

For those new to our Arc S sample roaster, it’s a roaster that I dreamed up after seeing problems in sample roasting across the supply chain, and over the last few years our incredible team made a reality. After many iterations, we got the Arc S to where we wanted it, and changed over to it in our own lab in Brooklyn. We immediately wanted to get it in the field, which is why we supported the team at Kinini with an Arc S last year. While I had high hopes for it, you really don’t know how things are going to go until people start getting their hands on it. When I asked the Kinini team why they thought their coffee improved this year in quality, their first answer was “The Arc S”. In their own words…