Over The Bars And Far Away – Sample

While this coffee tastes awesome in every device, our favourites are an espresso machine, Aeropress & moka pot.

Head over to our brew guides for making coffee for more.

All of our coffees come to us from small farms and estates. This means that when a coffee has been harvested, processed and drunk, it has gone for good.

With our other coffees, we aim to swap coffee every 8-12 months. With this limited edition, this will change more frequently, most likely every 3-4 months.  The coffees available as limited editions will be interesting and diverse in flavour to each other and will not necessarily follow a pattern of flavour.

If you are looking to try new coffees every few months or so, then this could be for you.

The Iyego Farmers’ Cooperative Society was founded back in 1959 for local coffee farmers in the Muranga County in central Kenya. Situated in the Highlands, making it ideal for growing specialty coffee at altitudes between 1,550 and 1,750 metres above sea level, the farmers here work hard to produce the very best coffee that Kenya has to offer.

Assisted by near-perfect coffee-growing conditions with cool night-time temperatures aiding flavour development, flowing rivers and volcanic soil from Mount Kenya; the farmers can experiment with different coffee crops and produce high-scoring specialty coffees ready for export.

Once harvested, coffee cherries are processed at the nearby Gatubu Coffee Factory, a specialist facility designed to process coffee to high standards, backing up the hard work of the farmers.

In the case of this particular crop, the coffee cherries are pulped and fermented for between 12 and 48-hours depending on conditions, before they are washed and dried slowly on raised beds. It is then shipped to a dry mill where it rests for up to three weeks on parchment before it is hulled and cleaned, ready for shipping around the world.

To determine the quality score of a coffee, a process known as cupping is used. Trained tasters known as Q graders will taste the coffee and score it dependant on a number of factors. A score of 80 points or higher is required to gain a speciality title. If it scores lower, it doesn’t make the grade. Fancy giving it a go? Read our guide about coffee cupping to learn more.

When we roast our coffees, we like to bring out and enhance their natural, amazing flavours. We don’t over roast any of our coffees, so we avoid any burnt or bitter tastes. The coffees that we roast are full of many natural flavours, it would be a shame to mask these or turn them into bitterness.

Some of our coffees will be very sweet and creamy, and others will be delicate and almost tea-like. We are thankful for the hard work and care that the coffee farmers put into growing these beans and want to do them proud when we roast their beans. We always aim to find a great selection of coffees and flavours that stand out from the rest.

Roast Style: Medium

Location: Kangema sub-county, Muranga county

Varietal(s): Batian, Ruiru 11, SL28

Processing: Washed

Altitude: 1,550 – 1,750 metres above sea level

Country: Kenya

Certification: Specialty

Producer: Oropendulas

Score: 83

What does this all mean? Check out our Jargon Buster.

The coffees that we choose are ethically sourced from small farms or single estates around the world. We purchase the best coffee and pay much more than the going rate price to the farmers – so when you buy coffee from us, you are in turn, helping the farmers. In fact, we pay between 30 and 150% more than the ‘going rate’ for coffee beans. This supports the farmers in their crop, their development and also ensures they have sufficient living conditions for them and their families.

We also keep the chain between the farmers and us as short as possible. A shorter chain means more of the money will make it to the farmer and their workers to spend on next years crops. So, all in all, buying one bag of coffee can make such a difference – thank you!

Five little ducks went swimming one day, over the hills and far away… know the tune? Well Head Chimp Andy recently went away mountain biking and, erm, lost it! So we’ve recreated the childhood classic tune with Head Chimp Andy went biking one day, over the bars and far away!