Outpost Coffee: Kenya, Gatomboya, Barichu Co Op, Washed

Gatomboya Factory (washing station) is part of the Barichu Co-operative Society. Gatomboya collects cherries from about 600 smallholders with an average of 0,4 hectares of coffees. Their total production is about 350 tons of cherries per year. Fermentation is done with Fresh River Water from Gatomboya stream.

GATOMBOYA is a Kikuyu word meaning “swamp” due to the swampy area,which made it a good arrow roots cultivated area.

The Barichu Cooperative Society is located in Nyeri in Central Kenya. Nyeri is known for coffees with intense, complex, and flavor-dense cup profiles. It is made up of mainly smallholder farms, each with some 100 trees. They are organized in Cooperative Societies that acts as umbrella organizations for the Factories (wetmills), where the small­holders deliver their coffee cherries for processing.

The annual average rainfall in the area is 1400 mm. The temperatures are mainly between 14 and 25 celcius. The soils around Mount Kenya is rich volcanic soils. Mainly Nitisol. Nitisols occur in highlands and on volcanic steep slopes. They are developed from volcanic rocks and have better chemical and physical properties than other tropical soils.

The main flowerings are in February – March, the main harvest from October to December and the coffees normally comes available for purchase between January and April.