Established on a desire to improve quality through experiments and implementation of the best coffee production practices, Kamavindi Coffee Lab has grown to be platform where farmers across the region can access information on production and marketing. Kamavindi coffee Lab is a farmer training center set up inside Kamavindi coffee Estate, a family run farm. Kamavindi coffee was established back in 1958 when the first coffee trees were planted by the founders, John Njiru Mbature and Anna Rwamba, after the native Africans were allowed to plant coffee but were limited to a maximum of 100 trees. The 100 tree rule was later lifted after Kenya gained independence and this saw the farm grow from the original 100 trees to the current ay 10,000 trees Today, the farmer training center is fully focused on working with farmers to produce specialty coffee and has successfully been able to help farmers coffee feature on the menu of leading specialty coffee shops around the world. Kamavindi coffee Lab is on the forefront, running trainings on the emerging specialty coffee processing techniques/trends across East Africa. We believe in the power of togetherness and this steered us to bring together farmers from different regions in the country to form a unique group known as kushikamana, a Swahili word for Connected. As the founder of the group, we train the farmers in areas of good farm practices, coffee processing and value addition.
To date, the best selling Kenyan coffees are farms/ cooperatives we have worked with at some point, or still working with. The higest price at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange for 2023/24 season was paid to a lot by Gichathaini, a factory we are working with.
Our work in the specialty coffee industry has received been able to come up with ways of processing coffee, that is specific to variety, farm and ensures the cup score above 87 points.
We did facilitate a coffee training focusing on value addition and market access in Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and machakos reaching over 200 young farmers in the regions. The training was sponsored by Solidaridad as part of their project dubbed PRACTICE FOR CHANGE, which was geared towards improving coffee production in East Africa. recognition on the global platform with our story being featured in the 25th Issue of the Specialty Coffee Magazine, a publication distributed globally translated in all major languages.
The Director of Kamavindi coffee Lab, Peter Mbature was on the Sprudge 20 list for the year 2022. The sprudge 20 is an annual initiative by Pacific Barista series that recognizes extra ordinary individuals in the global specialty coffee community. He also received the Re;Co Fellowship award in 2019 due to his contribution to the Specialty Coffee Industry. The director has been featured in the Specialty Coffee Magazine Issue No. 18, once again recognizing his contribution to the industry.
Through years of experiments we have
The farm got its name back in 1994 when the second-generation coffee farmers, Martin and Hellen set up a washing station at the farm. They named the farm after a stream that had its origin at the farm. Before the British Came to Kenya, land ownership was communal, meaning, the community owned land. The community had subdivided land into parcels, where each parcel had a unique crop planted’ It happens that where Kamavindi Estate is located was part of the parcel where the community planted Yams. ‘Mavindi’ in embu language refers to the part of yams that is not edible, but is replanted to produce new Yam vines. The locals used to clean up the harvested Yams in the stream leaving lots of ‘mavindi’ at the sream. ‘Ka’ in the name is used to refer to the location and size. Hence the stream was named Kamavindi
Before Kenya gained independence, the locals were only allowed to plant a maximum of 100 trees. They then would be forced to walk tens of kilometers to deliver their harvest to the cherry collection centers, which by then were few and kilometers apart. After kenya gained independence in 1963, the locals were allowed to plant more trees. This saw the farm grow from the original 100 stems to the current day 10,300.
We set the standard for the best coffees by driving innovation at every step of the supply chain.
We cultivate and exchange knowledge to empower people to create extraordinary coffee experiences.
We take action to invest in the environment and people through collaboration, communication, and transparency.