Ritual's Kenya Kiandu

James Hoffman mentioned he was “jealous” of this Kenyan lot, so I figured it was worth a try.


Love the Ritual logo.

Vac-pot brewing, 12oz water, 20g coffee, 3 minute brewing before removing heat. The draw-down was a little fast on the first batch and it tasted slightly underextracted, so for the second brew I fined the grind slightly on my Skerton and upped the brew-time to 3:30, which got much better results.

Grapefruit is the thing that jumps out at me: a distinct tartness with that slight bitter edge. There's also a layer of much mellower, juicier fruitiness, like a peach-juice blend. As the coffee cooled, the acidity stayed around but had more sweetness right up front. With the finer grind and longer brewing, I got a much nicer body, not very heavy but distinctive; it seemed to soften and balance the tart fruit flavors. This is definitely a sip-and-consider coffee, outstandingly complex, not a cuppa-joe-f'the-road kind of bean.


Really, really like the Bodum Pavina glasses for this kind of thing.

I also used this coffee to try out my Vinturi aerator for the first time. I don't think that a vacpot coffee is the way to test it: the siphon draw-down already looks like it's aerating the coffee a fair amount. I definitely noticed a difference between the aerated and non-aerated cups, but it wasn't huge. The brightness and tart notes in the aerated cup seemed to pop out more, which for this coffee isn't even really necessary. I'll try the aerator again when I use a press or pour-over or some such.

Regardless, fantastic coffee, I'm going to take some down to the roaster today and see what Michael thinks.