Last Thursday marked the official launch of our friend Kieran’s new cafe Kahawa Mzuri in Glasgow, a project that’s the culmination of many years’ work and a few exciting collaborations. We’re excited not only for Kieran, but for the opportunity to be roasting his coffee which he has sourced from Kenya. It’s a first for us to be roasting coffee that isn’t ours, so we feel the need to explain the story behind Kahawa Mzuri, and why we’re so excited for this new space to be open.
We first met Kieran a few years ago when he came along to Steampunk with some samples of Kenyan coffee he was importing. We knew him as a professional barista working at Glasgow’s Ottoman Coffeehouse, but this was our first introduction to him in his role as an importer. Straightaway we were intrigued by his ambition and his story.
Having grown up in Kenya, Kieran was working with Terrani Mokka, a Nairobi based exporter, to trade coffee in a way that would be better for farmers. “The more I learned about coffee, the more I learned about how bad the coffee trade is for farmers,” Kieran says. “Politics, corruption, exploitation, low income and climate change (to name a few) are all part of the problem.” Without going into too much depth about coffee farming in Kenya, which would be a blog post in itself, here’s a couple of links to videos by Weyni Tesfai that explain the realities:
Kenya's Coffee Industry is Broken - A Farmer Explains Why!
I Visited a Kenyan Coffee Farm - What I Learned Shocked Me!
Kieran’s vision was to create a transparent pipeline of coffee from Kenyan farmers to Scottish coffee lovers, and lucky for us he chose to include Steampunk as the roaster. When he approached us about roasting coffee for his shop it was an obvious yes. We loved what he was doing and we could see that he would go far. And this style of collaboration was something we’d never done before, so it was a growth opportunity for us as roasters.
We started by cupping the coffee options he’d settled on with Terrani Mokka and giving him feedback on which we thought would work best. It might not be obvious to a layperson, but deciding to serve only Kenyan coffees presents some challenges. Kenyan coffees are prized for their naturally vibrant acidity. But this acidity can also come off as sharp or astringent if not roasted and brewed well, especially when brewed as an espresso. Kieran needed his coffee to taste good as an espresso, both black and with milk. And though we’ve roasted our share of Kenyan coffees, we’d never roasted one specifically for use as espresso.
We needed the coffee to have well balanced, soft acidity so that it wouldn’t taste sharp or sour, especially in milky drinks. Plant milk is especially challenging. A very acidic coffee will curdle plant milk in a really unpleasant way. The coffee we chose together is a washed single lot with jammy notes of blackcurrant, bramble and grape and a sweet vanilla finish. It’s called Eldoret, after the home of the farmer who grew it, Timothy Kattam. He’s a retired professional marathoner who decided to apply the same discipline that pushed him as an athlete to coffee farming. And it’s working, this delicious coffee is just his second harvest.
Having chosen a coffee, we were poised to do what we do best, find a roast profile to let it shine. But first, the coffee had to get to the UK. Though the Kenyan harvest was on the early side this year, the shipping timeline wasn’t working out for Kieran’s opening date, so he managed to get 120kg airfreighted to us in North Berwick to begin working on.
Our first roast was very good, it had all the components we were looking for but the acidity was a touch higher than we wanted and we wondered if we could get more body and sweetness to come out. It took us two more roasts to find what we were looking for: a flavour profile with the twin zing of acidity and flash of sweetness; developed enough to shine as an espresso, but light enough to showcase the flavours that make this coffee special.
Our tasting notes for the different roasts we did ranged from bright fresh blackcurrant, Jolly Rancher candy and grapefruit to prune, raisin and molasses. The notes we wrote together to describe the final roast are: syrupy blackcurrant, bramble and grape mingle for an overall impression of forest fruit jam with vanilla tones and a sticky dried fruit sweetness. Tasting the coffee as it rested over a few weeks after roasting and touching base with Kieran about what he was tasting on his equipment over in Glasgow was a fascinating process. This is what we love about coffee: how tasting together brings us closer and makes for a shared experience.
Finally, last Monday was time for the official soft launch of Kahawa Mzuri, followed by its grand opening on Thursday! Michael had been along to see the space when Kieran was still doing it up, and then went along last Monday for the soft launch. Kieran has done such an incredible job with the space, making a cosy, welcoming environment where he is serving exceptional coffee.
Being in Kahawa Mzuri feels like being in a secret nook - it’s a small haunt where you can read your book, meet a friend, and enjoy some respite, and Kieran makes you feel welcome from the moment you enter. We’re so excited to be playing a small part in this very special place, and can’t wait to see it thrive!