GLORIA GUMMERUS

We first tried this coffee from Gloria & Sakami coffee back in 2023 from our friends at ThisSideUp and were amazed by the incredible uniqueness of it. Aside from the complex juiciness and changing flavour profile there are two significant things that really make this coffee stand out for us:

1)    Being a natural processed coffee – if you have been following us for a while you probably know that we tend to lean towards washed coffees, however, every year that we try this coffee it really blows us away. Morgan calls this his favourite ever natural coffee. It is in general very unique to find naturally processed coffees from Kenya.

2)    This coffee is also a single cultivar microlot of Batian, which is usually found as a blend component with other Kenyan varietals. Batian is one of the youngest coffee cultivars that is frequently used within the specialty industry and is an offshoot from SL34 crossed with many other varietals (see Arabica and Robusta Coffee Varieties @ varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org). When we isolate this varietal we get incredible juiciness with a tart finish that is truly mesmerising.

With the taste of this coffee speaking for itself, it is also very important to note the incredible work of Gloria and the rest of Sakami. ThisSideUp care deeply about transparent connections with origins, which in their words is why they thought they would never work with a Kenyan coffee; typically Kenyan coffee is sold through auction with this system benefiting the middleman. However, in 2020 TSU and Sakami were able to form a direct relationship with these rare single form lots with an emphasis on paying fair and stable salaries to the workers of the farms.

Gloria and her team care deeply about the environment and only want international partners who share the same love for the planet as they do. The coffee is all intercropped with an agroforestry approach and an entire holistic mindset is applied to the farm.

Sakami and ThisSideUp truly show to us how the three pillars of sustainability (Environmental, economical & social) can all be upheld in tandem with the right care. They are both an inspiration to us at von&vonnie and we are so happy to be able to share this coffee with you.

About the processing:
Only fully ripe cherries are accepted for pulping, each cherry is hand picked by our dedicated women, up to over 100 during picking season. All this is done at our farm and only dry milling is so far done with commercial millers. In near future Sakami intends to get dry milling equipment at the farm, to have 100% control of each green bean leaving the farm and being able to offer full growing and processing information for each bag. This coffee is processed in the natural method, meaning it is dried with the fruit intact, leading to a more complex cup.

About the roast:

We roasted this coffee very light to ensure we could maintain the complexity of this coffee, we approached this coffee with a very fast roasting style with a total roast time of 6 minutes 30 in a 4kg batch.

Agtron: 90 // VeryLight

About the coffee:

Region: Barbeton, Kiminini, Trans Nzoia county, Kenya.

Farm: Gloria Gummerus, Microlot Batian

Altitude: 1,800 MASL

Importer: This Side Up

View a full breakdown of costs our margins here

Download the technical sheet for this coffee here