Producer: Peterson & Purity Muthathai

Country: Kenya

Region: Embu

Elevation: 1,630 - 1,650 m.a.s.l.

Variety: SL-28 (less than 2% other)

Harvest: November - January

Process: Washed

Ngarutua Estate is a family farm run by the Muthathai family and is located on the southeastern slopes of Mt. Kenya within the county of Embu. The farm was originally established in the 1940’s and was named after its founder Mr. Paul Muthathai Ngarutua.

The first coffee trees were planted on Ngaratua in 1958, when Kenyan laws changed to allow native Kenyans to plant coffee under the British colonial rule. This law however limited Kenyan farmers to a maximum of 100 trees. A few years later in the early 1960's, the British law was lifted which brought on a lot of expansion of the Ngarutua Estate and Mr. Paul Muthahai Ngaratua began to plant more coffee.

In the 1960's and 70's the farm kept expanding and when Mr. Paul Muthahai Ngaratua passed on, his the wife Dina Mukami Muthahai took over the operations and continued the coffee production. Dina ran the coffee farm until 1975 when the management passed on to their son and current co-owner, Peterson Muthathai.

Peterson Muthathai went to school and studied education. Over the years, Peterson advanced in his teaching profession and become a well known and respected educator in Embu. While Peterson was very focused on education, he also continued to manage the family farm as well. He expanded the original ten acre piece of land to the current eighteen acres, that today has a total of 7000 SL- 28 coffee trees. As the production of the farm grew he also set up a washing station and processing site in 1994, which gave more control over the quality.

Today, the operations at Ngaratua are still a family operation. Peterson Muthathai and Purity Muthathai, his wife, are in charge of management and operations. Their children, who currently are working in different parts of the country, come over during the picking season to assist their parents with the processing and drying.

While Peterson and Purity have continued to grow and expand the farm the last 4 decades, they still have big plans for the future. They continue to invest in the infrastructure to create better systems from processing to drying, and plan to experiment with new varieties and new techniques.

Processing Info - washed
The coffee is pulped and dry-fermented for 20 hrs, then goes to intermediate washing. After a quick intermediate wash the coffee is fermented for a second time for around 20 hrs. After the second fermentation the coffee is fully washed in channels. After Washing the coffee soaked in clean water for 10hrs. After soaking the coffee is dried on raised beds.