The Roasting Party

Kenya Zawadi Peaberry

With mills spanning across three counties of what was formally the Central Province in Kenya, Zawadi is a blend created using carefully selected peaberries primarily from the Kamandi and Ndia-ini coffee factories. Ndia-ini lies 5km from Mukurwe-ini and uses water fresh from the Gikira river for processing. The proximity of the river gives the factory its name which translates to ‘river ponds’ in the Kikuyu language. Kimandi is situated in the village of the same name, close to Kabare town. The word Zawadi itself is Kiswahili, and means ‘Gift’. Coffee is picked and processed at each wet mill before being collated and dry milled where it is graded, hulled and bagged for shipping. The SL varietals are ubiquitous in Kenya. Coming from what was then known as Scott Laboratories in the 1930s, SL28 stems from a selection of a single tree from a population that was known as Tanganyika Drought Resistant, that was related to the Bourbon lineage of plants. SL34 was made in a similar way but from a French Mission lineage on the partnered Loresho Estate in Kabete. French Mission has always been assumed to be of Bourbon lineage, though recent genetic tests have shown it to be of Typica Lineage.