Lucid Coffee Roasters | Kenya Ainabtany AA | Washed Filter | 250g

Producers + Mill:

Lot 20 are a group that work with a coffee producers from Kericho and Bomet counties in the southern part of the Rift Valley in Kenya. They are passionate about cultivating, fair treatment of producers, and transparent trade.The group has goals to produce delicious coffee that showcases the beauty of their home region.
With auction being the main option of selling coffee in Kenya, sourcing transparently can be difficult on a good day, and near impossible on a bad one. Lot 20 however is trying something new: exporting their coffee themselves.

Kericho county has a long history of Coffee. In fact, the Kipkelion and Fort Tenan regions actually boast some of the first coffee farms in Kenya, which were originally planted by foreign settlers. Despite this, Kericho county (and by extension Bomet) are not as known for producing coffee as central Kenya. This is partially due to the fact that central Kenya’s coffee gets sold in bulk by
large exporters through the national auctioning system, and also because the farmers from Kericho and Bomet counties generally work within under-managed cooperatives that coffee dealers like to take advantage of for cheap prices. Lot 20’s work in the region has been to try and organise Kericho and Bomet farmers into properly functioning entities that process and sell coffee on their own, without the assistance of middle men or the auction system.

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• Varieties:

SL28 & SL34

Scott Laboratories – or Scott Labs – was established during British colonial rule of Kenya in the 1920s.Set up as an agricultural research centre, its role was to improve farming practices through technical advice and training on behalf of the Department of Agriculture.

Coffee, which was already integral to the Kenyan economy, quickly became the chief focus. In particular, researchers were keen to explore varieties that could offer long-term benefits, such as high yields and resistance to droughts and pests.

The idea was that they could distribute these varieties to farmers, who would then plant them on a commercial scale.

Together with the Lyamungo Research Station in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), they selected 42 different coffee trees to study.

SL28 was identified on a single tree in Tanzania and soon became ubiquitous thanks to its drought-resistance, high yield, and desirable cup profile. Since then, it has spread to other coffee-growing origins, including Uganda and Central America.

SL34 is also part of the Bourbon-Typica family and has adapted to grow in high altitude areas with a good amount of rainfall.

The variety was a single tree found on the private land of Loresho Estate in Kabete, Kenya. This tree was labelled “French Mission”, after its historical ties with French missionaries who had distributed original Bourbon seeds from the island of Réunion.

Both varieties are known for their exceptional quality and high yields. However, they are also recognised for susceptibility to diseases, such as coffee leaf rust and coffee berry disease