KENYA CHANIA

The Chania Estate farm has been owned by the Harries family for several generations. It is one of the last two remaining medium-sized farms in Kenya. Located on deep volcanic red soils Chania estate represents 73 hectares.

Today, over 50% of the Chania and Oreti farms are planted with Red Bourbon. The rest is a mix of Ruiru 11 (resistant variety), K7 (rust resistant), SL28 (susceptible to disease but known for its cup quality) and the new Batian variety.

All the coffee is picked entirely by hand and processed on site. Most are washed, but Boyce also produces natural and honey-processed coffees as well as microlots of specific varieties.

The Kenyan fully-washed process is a special process that involves double fermentation. After de-pulping, the cherries dry ferment in vats for 8 to 12 days. They are then washed and dry fermented a second time in vats for 5 hours. After this double fermentation, the cherries are washed again then immersed in water to remove all the mucilage overnight. The next morning, the cherries are spread in a thin layer on drying tables (no more than 2 or 3 cherries deep) and left to air for about 4 hours in order to reduce the cherry moisture content to 55%. The cherries are then placed on African beds for 2 weeks to reach 10 to 12% humidity.