This is the last of the three Meta Coffee Lab coffees sent to me by my pals up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Unfortunately I have no sales link to this coffee but I’m sure Suzanne and Mike would LOVE to sell you some coffee, so you can find their contact info on their website!
Today’s coffee is from Kenya, coming from Kirinyaga, a coffee growing district in that country that produces tons of great coffee every year. “Kiangoi” is a “factory” or coffee mill in Swahili. This is an AB size coffee, with AA being the largest beans. I have had a couple other AB’s from Kenya this year and they seem to be a bit sweeter and bit toned down compared to some of the other Kenyans I’ve been drinking, but that could also just be a coincidence of roasters, too.
I don’t have any info about this coffee except that it’s probably a lot of SL-28 varietal being where it’s from. Being from Kenya it’s from a lot from a coffee growing society or co-op where member farmers pool their coffee, it gets sorted and sold by size and quality. Such is the way in Kenya!
Meta Coffee Lab’s tasting notes say, “dark grape, sugar sweetness, mango.” In the dry grounds and during brewing there is a TON of savory tomato in this coffee, but none of that really makes it into the flavor. That always makes me smile. Tomato in coffee aroma?! You bet! LOL
This is a pretty mellow cup for a Kenyan coffee, even by this year’s standards which seem to feature sweeter, less abrasively acidic coffees from this region (at least to my palate). I drank a lot of this bag of coffee and it’s sweet with some more apple-like acidity (a little softer and tuned down compared to citrus, and these flavors come from malic acids rather than citric acids). There are warm baking/mulling spices in the flavor and aroma and it has a nice finish and aftertaste with mostly sweetness in the cup. This is a super-drinkable coffee and I found myself coming back to this bag over and over again even when I needed to be moving on to get to new coffees in the queue!
I really enjoyed all three coffees Meta Coffee Lab sent me and for an upstart coffee company I think they are doing a great job! I hope to see big things in Lincoln from Suzanne and Mike!