Friday June 1st - How to Make Real Coffee

Friday 1^st June - Hand Made Coffee – One of the things I wanted to do on coming too Kenya was to make coffee by hand from scratch. Today at the Kibe household Elliott showed me the ropes and I realised that dream and boy is it hard work!! Here is the process:

The beans had already been picked and dried a few days before and are green at this stage. A wood fire was lit in the “kitchen”. This comprises of corrugated metal sheets on a branch frame with little or no ventilation. This leads to a very smoky environment as you can see from the photos and our squinting and eyes watering. The chapatti pan placed on top of the fire supported by stones. A small amount of oil is added then the beans.

It is important to keep them moving so they roast not burn. This was done with a dessert spoon and with flames lapping around the edges of the pan there were no hairs left on my hands at the end of the day. I also have to confess to yelping a few times and dropping the spoon as I concentrated too much on stopping the beans burning rather than stopping my hands burning. Some how the smell of roasting coffee permeates the thick wood smoke and the most amazing aroma is a treat to my senses, mmmmmmmm!

Once the beans are the right colour they are transferred to the crusher. This is a 40cm long by about 15cm diameter clay block with a recess in one end. The beans are added in small amounts to this end. Then using a 2cm diameter x 30cm long rod the beans are crushed by the end of the rod being rammed into the recess.

The beans are still very warm at this point which makes them easier to crush. Once they are crushed to a fine enough consistency they are checked

Then if OK transferred to a plate/container awaiting the rest. This ground coffee is also shaken to allow any larger pieces to rise to the top and be returned to the crusher.

The process is repeated for the rest of the beans. For about 3 litres of beans it took around 2.5 hours to prepare.

The ground coffee is then added to a suffuria (pan) on the wood fire to boil and crew. A mighty fine brew it was too and very strong! I am given a tin to take home an enjoy in the month ahead.

One sad thing to note is that despite vast amounts of coffee being grown in Kenya, most Kenyans cannot afford the end product. Those that grow their own beans usually sell them as they are too valuable as a cash generating crop to “waste” on themselves. 

I get to the motorbike to ride home and discover another puncture! Another 3.5km ride with flat front tyre. On tarmac this time and I am in time to get it fixed at a different “Kenyan Kwik Fit”. I am not sure where they have come from but I have 3 punctures and the chaps remove 20 thorns from the front tyre and 15 from the rear whilst I am watching. This is Kamaragu a nearby village.