Coffee anyone?

We had been telling Mama Lydia how much we all loved coffee, and not surprisingly, she has friends who own a coffee plantation! So a couple of weeks ago, she brought Louise, Kevin and I to see the coffee plantation that her friends Esther and Nicholas own. The father-in-law (not sure on who's side) used to work (at a high level) for the previous president and, as a "perk", was given prime land on which he started this plantation. Now, this couple run it (800 acres of coffee trees), but the parents still live on the land. Nicholas brought us to their place - WOW! We just saw the outside, but it was gorgeous: manicured gardens; colourful trellisses and a pool!!

You could tell how passionate Nicholas was about his work as he brought us around the plantation and explained, in detail, each step of the process. Can you believe that each tree is pruned by hand?! And each bean manually picked?! There were thousands of trees, row upon row. Nicholas said he mostly hired women to do this work because they were much more detail-oriented and particular about the pruning and picking.

We drove around the plantation, and sometimes got out and walked just to see things up close. Nicholas said he only ever walks!! (let me remind you, it's 800 acres!!)

He showed us trees that were at the blooming stage, and then others at various stages of ripening. He talked about the different species; some which are prone to disease and infestations and others which have been "bred" to avoid these issues.

We were brought to the factory where, once harvested, the beans were washed and sorted into different grades. There are AA grades, right down to D grades which are sorted through different cement bins using water and the weight of the bean (whatever floats at a various stage in the process determines its grade).

The beans are then dried, husked, peeled... I can't even remember all the different steps! Unfortunately, (me being so passionate about production) the factory was not running when we were there. They had just finished the harvesting, processing season.

90% of Kenyan coffee is exported. This is not surprising to us seeing that every time we order "Kenyan brewed coffee" in a restaurant, we get Nescafe!! Kenyans are for the most part tea drinkers - even Nicholas and his wife, Esther!! But, after the tour of the plantation, we were served a wonderful lunch, and yes...freshly brewed, Kenyan coffee right from their plantation...yum!