The birth of a women's group

Our relationship with Sakami goes back as far as the start of This Side Up. We met when both Sakami and TSU were still in their infancy, and we were both wandering through the World of Coffee in Rimini trying to make sense of the specialty coffee industry.

The truth was that for many years, we did not want to work in Kenya because we did not think our model of direct and transparent relationships would fit here. We knew that the industry normally pays high prices only to support an auction system that benefits middlemen. However, after this first meeting in 2013, Sakami and This Side Up kept meeting through common friends who knew we had a future together before we did. Finally, a formal proposal by Stean Fasol to form a collaboration finally led to us coming together and offering single farm Kenya lots in an otherwise untransparent Kenyan coffee offering in 2020.

Farmers like Gloria and Jarmo are a special breed. They provide stable and fair employment to their communities, have very high agricultural and regenerative standards. They have an export license, meaning we can circumvent the system we didn’t want to support. And just so happen to have a huge network just waiting for an opportunity like the one we offered. This is how a medical doctor, a marketer, a banker, a beauty expert, and a development worker joined forces and came together: Susan, Dr. Rosabella, Jane, Gloria and Mary Tonje. Five progressive women committed to offering their very best and to grow coffee with the people from the region and to find a way to empower the farmers that have been chained to underpaid jobs for generations. Over the years, the list of women working with Gloria has also been increasing. All with the intent to empower and be empowered through coffee trade.

We are proud to have been a catalyst for the formation of a new alliance of women, strong independent entrepreneurs whose coffees and faces have a permanent place in the TSU family.

Gloria and Jarmo
SAKAMI COFFEES

hectares: 120
trees: 90,000

Dr. Rosebella
CHEPSANGOR COFFEE

hectares: 18
farmers: 127

Tonje Family
CARAVIANEL COFFEE

hectares: 3-4
trees: 8,400

Susan
SAMWA COFFEE

hectares: 9
trees: 12,000
part time farmers: 100 (of which 90 are women)
full time farmers: 16 (of which 14 are women)

JANE
WANRICH COFFEE

hectares: 9
trees: 8,000
farmers: 10
women farmers: 6

Shantelle
Ziwa Farms

hectares: 4
coffee trees: 5500

THIS SIDE UP VALUE CHAIN

TRACEABILITY

You can find all the signed contracts and shipping documents that we made with Sakami since 2021 below (Google Drive).

Key ACHIEVEMENTS

2021: first and successful crowdsourcing campaign to import 100 bags from Sakami to Rotterdam. 

2022: Gloria expanded our cooperation to four other women-run farms and met many of them at the World of Coffee in Milan. The women’s group was officially recognised by the International Women's in Coffee Alliance as a new chapter: The North of the Rift Women In Coffee. Sakami bought 3100 native trees from our regenerative premium to make a buffer zone between the coffee and a nearby stream, provide wind breakers, protection against soil erosion and enhance the aesthetics of the farm.

2023: Gloria’s visit to Europe to meet the people behind the buyers of their coffee, those buying and telling their story. “It was a humbling experience as a farmer” said Gloria. Two additional members joined the NORT group, Shantelle and Sophie. Registration of a community based organisation under NORT to accommodate the local community.

2024: Finally, the TSU team visited Sakami after three years of partnership, as well as all the other women under the NORT umbrella.

RECOMMENDED IKAWA PROFILE

We found it rather hard to find a universal profile for our washed Kenya on Ikawa. Working only with a hot air for such type of coffee feels tricky sometimes as often the result is both underdeveloped and overroasted at the same time. West Kenya feels tamed with ‘Washed Africa’ profile, it develops beans enough to see potential and difference between lots.
Naturals and anaerobics are easier to control. “Natural Africa” profile proves to work for most African naturals. As a rule of thumb: high drop temperature and rather short DT does the trick for fermented lots.

CONTACT SAKAMI

Gloria and Jarmo are active in many channels of communication, especially email, instagram and Whatsapp.

CONTACT Gloria and Jarmo Gummerus

EMAIL sakamicoffee@gmail.com

TEL  +254 722 711 605

WEB / INSTAGRAM

Barbeton, Kiminini, Trans Nzoia county, Kenya

A FLAME THAT SPREAD ACROSS CONTINENTS

Gloria used to work in the beauty industry doing international shows, organizing events and essentially bringing people together. She owned a beauty saloon and also worked as a make up artist for movies. Around the same time through this industry, she met Jarmo who was working as an engineer for the Finnish Government doing projects in Africa especially Kenya. When their paths crossed, they started dating eventually got together. They were looking to buy a house and got an offer with a farm that came along with it. Jarmo had done a couple of projects in Rwanda and had learnt more about growing coffee because of it. If they were to buy this house with the farm, he was interested to plant coffee as one of the cash crops. Jarmo had also heard about farmers growing macadamia and that was intercropped with coffee! Gloria’s introduction to coffee dated back to when she was a child. She hailed from a coffee family that was rather scared about the moment of day in which the first coffee would be consumed. She and her sisters would spend waking hours brewing coffee for the whole family to enjoy, especially her brother who was particular about how he would like his coffee.

Both Gloria and Jarmo wanted to plant crops that could be sustainable for a long term if they went through with this idea, not to mention they were in peak of their respective careers until then.

It was clear that coffee had made it’s way into the Gummerus household as their obvious choice but there was still one big problem. The didn’t exactly have a market for the coffees they were interested to grow and the local market was fairly political for them to rely on it completely.

They planted their first trees in 2010 and Jarmo knew they had to find a market outside Kenya perhaps internationally. They were well aware they did not want to compete with big players. So, they didn’t want to trade in Kenya . As their coffees were growing, they started their next quest - to find a viable market. They began going to coffee expos to hand out samples to potential buyers, only to notice some of them would have left these sample bags behind without caring much for it!

It was all not gloom and doom because it was in one of these shows, Gloria and Jarmo met Lennart for the first time in 2013 (Rimini World of Coffee). Though much didn’t come out of this meeting, Lennart still had left his then business card with Gloria. Years passed, Gloria and Jarmo were still making the rounds, learning the coffee language and scouting for a reliable market outside Kenya. In 2016, Lennart crossed paths again with Gloria’s coffee except this time it was a sample sent by Joonas, a Finnish roaster who was a friend of Jarmo.

In the beauty industry most of the skills were always self taught, and for Gloria, coffee wasn’t far from it. She was taking courses to learn about cup quality, exporting, setting up a company among other things. During a farm to cup exhibition organized by AFCA in Kenya in 2020, Gloria met Maarten. Quick with her charms and wit, Gloria managed to convince Maarten to join a closed room cupping to taste some of her coffees. This attempt worked well in their favor, Maarten really liked some of her coffees, took some samples before he flew back to the Netherlands. But, it still didn’t guarantee a business since Kenya’s reputation for corruption preceded it’s coffee and it made Lennart hesitate to take the leap.

Later that year, Gloria went to yet another class (by now you must know she has been to many!) and it was on Q grading where she met Stean. He was a roaster who wanted to do direct trade. He had come from the Netherlands and was lecturing the class. He had also expressed interest in finding Kenyan producers whose coffee he could export to the Netherlands. He knew of This Side Up and he too wanted to work with TSU. He agreed to consolidate a container that included Gloria’s coffee to the Netherlands along with the coffees he bought.

It was settled then, Gloria’s coffees were flying across the continent! And thus began the Kenyan alliance between Sakami and This Side Up that has been turning a spark into a blazing flame!

CULTIVARS

Ruiru 11, Batian, SL28, K7

elevation

1800 meters

NOTABLE

Around 50 women working in Gloria’s farm having been trying to register as an official group that can leverage the power of the community to create improved accessibility to credit and other resources. Each month they set aside some contribution from each member and will wait until they have reached 10,000 shillings that can be deposited to officially register. Gloria serves as an inspiration for women around her since they see how she conducts her business. Next to this the Sakami farm is creating agroforestry by intercropping macadamia trees between coffee, protecting all indigenous trees in and around the farm, as well as the wetland by not interfering on it, leaving natural bush sections in and around the coffee trees, having beehives around the farm, and avoiding the use of pesticides or herbicides. All "waste" such as coffee pulp and macadamia husks are fed to earthworms and worm castings are returned back to the field as manure or used to make foliar feed. Water from pulping and washing the coffee is treated in a settling pond with lime and then used to irrigate the pasture below the ponds. Next to all this, Sakami uses mineral fertilizers to replace the nutrients taken away when harvesting cherries

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.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact sakami

 Gloria and Jarmo Gummerus

EMAIL info@sakamicoffee.com

TEL  +254 722 711 605

WEB / INSTAGRAM

Photo gallery

You may use these photos freely to promote Gloria and Jarmo’s coffee amongst your customers.

not all superheroes wear a cape

Rosebella draws inspiration from her mother who was force behind her early years of education which played a pivotal role in shaping her world for the coming years. Ever since that, she has been actively championing women around her who want to send their children to school by helping them pay their school fees. Although she realized her passion to empower the community around her was alive, this way of sporadic support to the women around here wasn’t sustainable. In 2017-18 when they moved to their new house in Nandi hills which once belonged to the British (Muzungu, as they fondly call them in Africa), there was lots to be done in renovating this house. They also discovered around this area, only the British were allowed to plant coffee, traces of these were still intact. In 2019, Rosebella and her husband Samy planted their first coffee trees and provided ample employment, turned out only men were to be seen doing all the work. Women who knew of this would come by her house to looking for employment.

At that point, she wasn’t exactly sure how she would engage with them although she started talking to them about it openly and honestly. They shared stories of their misfortune of working long hours to transport 50 kilogram bags of charcoal to long distances. They were often in trouble with local police for the same and in the end, there were empty stomachs still awaiting the safe return of their wives, mothers back home after a day’s work. Rosebella decided she had to help these women help themselves and simply handing out endless cash (if that ever was possible!) was not going to cut it.

She knew coffee could be their elixir.

First she mobilized 40 women who came and shared their stories that included how many coffee trees did they have in their farms. Most of them had 0 coffee trees but close to 8-9 children to feed in their family. Rosebella did what she does best - mobilize the group. The conditions were clear - they had to help themselves, she would let them buy seedlings at a discount from her so it doesn’t feel like a donation, instill ownership and let them be their own main characters! Sometimes when women farmers didn’t have money, they would barter with eggs to buy coffee seedlings. Others had to fight their husbands who uprooted their trees, in some cases 5 times before they were let alone to do their thing.
Each woman found a way to become coffee farmer by choice in due course and the constant that remained - Rosebella’s unconditional support to them.

Today Rosebella works with sourcing coffee from 60 farmers who have organized and registered themselves as Chepsangor Women. Their chairwomen and secretary speak stellar English and are charismatic leaders who are are actively strategizing for their collective future. With their self esteem improved, their coffees bringing them an income they can call it their own, the group is making great strides towards a positive future.

CULTIVARS

Ruiru, Batian

elevation

1760 - 2100 m.a.s.l

NOTABLE

At Chepsangor they follow a zero-till method while planting seedlings; coffee trees grow under the shade of indigenous trees and the perennial of the river is protected by a 10 meters border of natural vegetation. Beehives are installed throughout the farms and soil health is annually tested and protected with organic leaf matter a manure. 

Rosebella is experimenting to understand the viability of the Biogas as fuel source which could potentially be adopted by these women for cooking instead of cutting down trees for firewood. She is also working with them to set up a portal through the government so they can have a recognized online shop to sell their produce. These women also have been vocal about having clean access to water, energy with their local governments because of their improved self esteem. The coffee from these women are mixed together with coffee from Rosebella’s own estates and undergo a washed process.

PROCESSING

Natural : The ripest cherries from the coffee farm are collected and lights are separated from the heavy and they are dried for 30 days until a moisture content of 11.5% is achieved.
Anaerobic Naturals : The same process as naturals is followed then coffees are put in the fermentation tank with no oxygen for 5 days. Carbon di oxide is released whenever necessary and pH is monitored so it stays consistent between 3.5-4. The slimy coffees are then
Washed : The heaviest cherries are pulped and dry fermented over night usually between 24-48 hours depending on what is usually required. It is washed and dried over 14 days until the desired moisture is attained.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact ROSEBELLA LANGAT

Rosebella will be accessible through her telephone and via WhatsApp. She is also reachable via email as well as Instagram.

TEL :+254 728 96086
EMAIL : rosebellalangat@gmail.com

INSTAGRAM

Photo gallery

You may use these photos freely to promote Rosabella’s coffee amongst your customers.

REVIVING THE COFFEES THAT FLATLINED

In 2015 when Susan’s mother got sick, she had to return home from Nairobi to be with her. At that time she was studying and practicing medicine. Once she came back to Kitale, she was also looking for work and couldn’t find anything that she desired except taking care of her family farm. She had been a farm girl through and through growing up, although she wasn’t well versed with the technicalities, it was not anything new. Her mother’s passing made her want to start managing the farm and go from a doctor to becoming a farmer. They had a few coffee trees but were majorly growing maize and rearing cattle.

She also noticed that 2018 when she was taking charge of the farm, the prices they got for their coffees were really low perhaps even one-fourth of what they used to receive. She took a trip to export facility that milled her coffee only to understand the prices paid to coffee were quite low. Susan knew then she had to start doing a lot more and began visiting coffee research institutes to do courses, googling to acquire the collective wisdom on the internet. When her father went to visit Nairobi, Susan (secretly) went ahead and changed the entire cycle for some of trees located at an higher elevation. It was quite a gamble yet she really believed the way things needed to be done had to change.

The coffees had to be revived from being flatlined any further.

In 2020, the little stunt she pulled with changing the cycle of few trees worked in her favor. They could turn around the productivity, quality from those cherries were better, her father and community around her started taking her seriously. Being a colonial farm with a plot of land still holding trees that are more than 60 years old, Susan’s father had planted coffee trees in 1996 (when her little brother was born). They had always done things a certain way and it was rather hard for Susan to merely change minds by talking. By learning things about coffee and it’s need through different resources, Susan could comprehend in depth what her trees truly wanted. Having this clarity propelled Susan to making strides towards improving the farm’s productivity at steady pace. Chegge, her farm manager also joined her in this coffee journey roughly and has been helping her change the way coffee needs to be grown!

Now she has neighbours (especially old men) near and far treat hers as a model farm. They come to her for advise, ask her about farm management techniques, how to prune the coffee etc - and she “allows” them!!

It does take a woman to change the cycle!

CULTIVARS

Ruiru 11, SL28, Batian, (trees from colonial part of the farm identified to be blue mountain)

elevation

1800-2000 meters

NOTABLE

They have set up a community beehive for the women working at Susan’s farm to harvest honey and make some extra income at local market. They employ their workers year around to provide a stable income especially by giving opportunities to women in the community. They want to start experimenting with processing methods, naturals in particular for the upcoming year. Susan conducts soil tests to understand the composition of nutrients that needed to be added back to the soil. All their fertilizer comes from sheep and cow they rear. Currently for Susan, her soil is rich in nitrogen so she uses supplements to balance for the rest of the composition.

PROCESSING

Fully Washed : Red coffee cherries are hand picked and pulped there after. They are dry fermented for 24 hours, washed thoroughly and taken to the drying beds. Depending on weather, coffees are dried between 14-28 days. They are also sorted by hand for any kind of damages during the processing.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact susan mwihaki

Susan is available through email and telephone and has an active instagram channel.

EMAIL suemwikaki24.sm@gmail.com / samwakenyalimited@gmail.com

TEL  +254726908049

INSTAGRAM

Photo gallery

You may use these photos freely to promote Susan’s coffee amongst your customers.

A banker going beyond just transactions

In 2017 when Jane quit her job, she wanted to take a chance on herself and become a farmer. Her husband’s family farm at that time was growing maize and rearing cattle with a few coffee trees. 2015 was the first time, the Wanrich farms flirted with possibility of growing speciality coffee in that soil. Although in those two years even when they provided canopy, weeded, pruned the coffees, the trees refused to be productive. As soon as Jane moved back to Kitale, she also attended an agricultural show where she met someone from the coffee research institutue. That was one of the first turning points in her story because she got a lot of support regarding how the trees have to be managed throughout the year. Jane then took it upon herself to continue on her quest and this time she also wanted to become well versed as an exporter. Together with Gloria’s help, she started attending workshops on coffee exporting to get a better grip regarding the needs of the coffee world.

During this time, the coffees planted in 2015 were close to fruition and they harvest 2 bags from 8 acres of land dedicated to coffee. Jane knew then that both her and her coffee were hardly close to their potential. She started getting help from the coffee research institute regarding the best varieties to be planted for their soil condition, following calendars that offered guidelines about maintenance and learning more about the market.

2 bags became 9 then it became 50 and in 2021 close to 100 (that included lower grades) and the list keeps growing!

Coffee was instrumental to Jane’s growth and satisfaction as a farmer. It helped her build several connections in her community. Most important of them all was the one she has been building with her employees over the last few years. She has been able to identify which of them have continued to remain with her and started supporting them by offering year around employment in harvesting maize, rearing cattle. Her ability to value interpersonal relationships is helping her build a community around her that also benefit from coffee in this region. Providing employment is the biggest point of impact that doesn’t have to stop since Jane has also been actively expanding her production by planting new coffee trees.

Jane’s proactiveness doesn’t stop with just being able to expand her coffee and community, it lies in giving back. It lies in being an ally to empower the women around her. She and Susan are on the board for NORT women’s group which is working towards creating a central processing unit that can be accessed by the farmers native to Kitale. As they are building the future now, Jane continues to be an essential building block for it!

CULTIVARS

Batian, Ruiru 11 grafted with SL28

elevation

1800 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

Jane also follows a strict year around calendar that offers guidelines on different maintenance activities required to keep the coffee plants healthy. They don’t apply any herbicides, use organic foliar to improve the quality without damaging the soil. Jane has planted hectares of grafted coffees in 2021 to reduce the impact of being affected by coffee trees and they have seen it bearing fruits in just 2 years of it. She also envisions that once they are able to improve their production volumes she can eventually export under the Wanrich directly someday.

PROCESSING

Fully Washed : The red cherries are picked and pulped on the same day without water. They are soaked for 13-15 hours on the first day, washed and again are overnight for 12-13 hours. They are washed again, sent to the drying beds where they are laid out thin. They are dried over a period of 10-11 days under direct sun until 11 am after which they are turned, covered whilst drying.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact jane kamau

Jane can be easily reachable through WhatsApp, Instagram and Email

EMAIL: janekamau@wanrich.net

TEL +254  722 895377

WEB | INSTAGRAM

Photo gallery

You may use these photos freely to promote Jane’s coffee amongst your customers.

a development heart lives forever

Mary Tonje was a social worker from when she was 25 years old. Nothing changed even when she started farming coffee in her late 70’s. During the 90’s, everyone in Kitale was growing maize, Mary had just bought a piece of land to build her own house when she was just 25. An aspirational woman, with a developmental heart translated to her working towards actively supporting many different organizations whose main focus included community development as well advocating for empowering women through education. She strongly believed that uplifting women in families will also help the children prosper. She was a single mother, she raised 3 daughters who studied and got good jobs to move abroad. As she was growing older, she continued to work in several different capacities in the public sector that included being a teacher for a brief while. In 2002, she had a neighbour called Sogomo who was an extremely passionate coffee farmer. He was the last remnant of an indigenous tribe that was forced to leave Kenya. He positively influenced Mary to see coffee had a great potential. He told her it could be a tool for her to go global and pointed out she could also have similar experiences as her daughters who were all abroad. Mary aspired to go global. She too wanted to earn in dollars for the work she had been doing and decided she would plant coffee. In 2015 having been introduced to Gloria and rest of the NORT women through her daughter Annie, Mary was determined to take the risk and was on a mission to become a global presence. Her daughters were still wondering how their mother was going to manage it all alone in Kitale. They were puzzled by her determination to start something this big in her 70’s. Neverthless she persisted in her dreams. She mostly employed women in her farms and her development heart aided her in letting her community also proposer from coffee, like she would one day.

Evelyn, also known fondly as Mama Kahawa found Mary and joined her in this coffee journey. She took care of the farm and employed a group of women along with her who would go around to work on neighboring coffee farms. Mary and her family knew it was important for Evelyn to be supported so she could reach a certain socio-economic development which would simply create a ripple effect of empowerment through Evelyn in the community. In 2020, they had their first harvest and she was the first partner Gloria wanted to onboard under the Sakami banner for TSU. Mary earned her dollars for her coffee through this powerful partnership, enjoyed the fruits of her labour.

She didn’t stop there, Mary had a spirit for innovation, she envisions a farm that is capable of having many different varieties native to Kenya grown and exported. She also wanted to work on different processing methods. She had set up a nursery with coffee saplings that they distribute locally to engage the youth in coffee production much more actively. She gave back in different ways to the community.

Unfortunately she passed away last year creating a huge void within her family and the community.

Her work, ideas and legacy continue to live because of her family taking up coffee farming after her. Her children and grandchildren have been actively involved several aspects of the business and together with Mama Kahawa, Mary continues to remain a global presence.

CULTIVARS

Ruiru, Batian, K7

elevation

1800 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

The Tonje family has set up a nursery where they disribute different varietials and make coffee farming attractive for the youth in the region. Collins and his brother also volunteer at school for blind frequently and support with many activities including teaching children IT. They also share produce from their farm with the school. They have 10 permanent workers and employ up to 30 workers during harvest season. For some of them, they help them paying school fees for their children. They are also expanding their farms by planting new coffee farms that include K7 variety.

PROCESSING

Washed : Cherries are floated and heavies which were grouped as P1 . They are fermented over night, pulped, washed and dried in temperature controlled environment until desired moisture levels are attained.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Photo gallery

You may use these photos freely to promote Tonje’s coffee amongst your customers.

repetition is reAlISATION

In 2019, Esther and her family bought a piece of land in Nyeri for their daughter Shantelle to grow up and become a coffee farmer. Shantelle was born with Down syndrome. She is currently in high school, in less than 3 years she will finish her schooling. After being rejected by many schools for being born with an intellectual disability, Shantelle got accepted in a school for her music and swimming skills. Not far from this school is Ziwa farms, where coffee was first planted in 2020. It is possible to navigate down syndrome by performing tasks that are inherently repetitive. Keeping this in mind, Esther has been setting up this farm for Shantelle to take over short after high school. She wants Shantelle to earn an income for her work and lead a decent life. It would be possible for Shantelle to repeat the same tasks every year between harvest to export with coffee.

Esther being a banker herself has been working with the cooperative bank of Kenya closely with several coffee farmers. Her everyday work involves working with financing the different aspects of coffee production. That gave Esther the idea that this could be an important pathway for her daughter to make a living. Her aspirations for her daughter include Shantelle also providing employment opportunities in her community. She hopes by helping Shantelle becoming a coffee farmer, it would invite others in the neighborhood to also actively see coffee as a tool that will improve their livelihoods. Esther’s daughters and their friends frequent the farm regularly and this for them feels like the first step towards helping the younger generation consider farming to be attractive.

Esther hopes Shantelle can tell her story through her music and be able to build a repertoire of reliable clients for her coffee in the coming years.

CULTIVARS

Ruiru 11, SL 28, Batian

elevation

1900 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

Their coffee trees are intercropped with Macadamia and other indigenous trees. They have set up 25 bee hives across the farm. They regularly conduct farm visits in collaboration with educational institutions located in close proximity to the farm so they foster the youth participation in coffee farming.

PROCESSING

They employ women and youth within the community to carefully select and harvest the cherries at the red ripe stage which is supervised by Esther and her family. ⁠Once harvested, any over-ripes, under-ripes, diseased or flawed cherries are isolated. Depending on the customer’s requirement, the processing method based on the customer needs either Fully washing or Natural sun dried . They have our own wet mill where they pulp the coffee.⁠ They sun dry the coffee slowly to ensure that the quality of the coffee beans is maintained . Once dried, it is stored in their parchment store within the farm to ensure the moisture and quality of the coffee is maintained. The required quantities are then delivered at a licensed dry mill.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact ZIWA FARMS

You can reach Esther through Whatsapp and learn more about their coffees also through their website, other socials. You can also directly visit them in Kenya.

CONTACT:  Esther

EMAIL: info@ziwafarm.com

TEL +254  7 03 29 5757

WEB / INSTAGRAM

Photo gallery

You may use these photos freely to promote Shantelle’s coffee amongst your customers.

THIS SOPHIE’S CHOICE WASN’T DIFFICULT

David had a career with Kenyan Government working on travel protocol, securing officials visa and other travel document within National Assembly for 30 years. David has strived to support his community in all these years one way or the other. One of the things he used to was support youth in local football tournaments by rewarding the winning team monetarily. He used to sponsor these tournaments and organize various events especially during Christmas to raise the spirits of his community. After his streak at the National Assembly, his local community encouraged him to run for Member of Parliament. He was elected and held his seat for Saboti Constituency in Kitale for 5 years.
Although he was attending his calling in politics and served his community, agriculture was always part of the Wafula family. His father used to work as a chef for white settlers back in the days. He was then promoted to farm manager which he continued to do even after Kenyan government secured it’s land back and redistributed to people after British left. His family used to grow maize and David remembers helping out during weekends, holidays so they could get some more money. This money especially was useful to send children to school or buy school supplies.
When David bought a farm of 100 acres that was dedicated to grow sugar cane, maize; he was still working in Nairobi and wasn’t around to tend to the farm. It wasn’t until his daughter who was studying to be an air hostess came to visit the farm, they got this idea to plant coffee. She was doing courses on hospitality and she eventually started working as a Barista in Artcaffe.
They didn’t have the know how and lacked training on how coffee needed to be grown.
Enter Gloria.
She pointed them in the right direction and connected them with an expert from research institute. David quickly learnt the ropes and his 10 acres of coffee quickly became 30. Today it is also more than that for Sophie and her family. It has turned into an act of devotion. David wants to spend all his time working at his coffee farms. He wants to get his daughter involved so she can be in charge of marketing all their coffees in the future. They have been employing youth and women year around in their coffee farms.

Economic empowerment has become a ripple effect in their community because of coffee trade.

CULTIVARS

Ruiru 11, Batian

elevation

1,500 meters

NOTABLE

They employ 150 workers during harvest season out of which 85% are women and youth. The income helps families send their children to school. They intercrop coffee with Macadamia, Avocado, sugarcane. They rear cattle for dairy production. They perform soil analysis to understand the nutrient composition. Animal waste like cow dung is mixed with coffee pulp to prepare manure. They also apply foliar to combat diseases and pests especially CBD.

PROCESSING

Natural: Coffee cherries are harvested at their ripest point, selected and separated for lights, heavy. They are fermented for 72 hours and left to dry until they achieve desired moisture requirements. Lazaro estate is also open to working with clients that want them to develop exclusive processes with their coffees. Since it is first year of direct trade, they are waiting to understand how these coffee perform to either repeat or revamp processing accordingly.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

Contact DAVID lazaro

David is fluent in English and Swahili. He can be directly contacted via phone or whatsapp. He is enthusiastic to talk about everything to do with their estate.
TEL : +254 720 678540

Photo gallery

You may use these videos freely to promote Sophie’s coffee amongst your customers.