ASTRAL BLOOD, Kenya

Lemon Tea, Passiona, Tangerine

Approximately 150km North of Nairobi, nestled in the highlands of Nyeri County, lies the town of Othaya. It is here, between the imposing slopes of Mount Kenya and the mist-veiled Aberdare Ranges, that the Othaya Farmers Co-operative Society Limited endures, an institution shaped by both time and toil. Perched at an elevation of 1828 MASL, the area provides an austere but ideal environment for the cultivation of Arabica coffee, a crop upon which the community depends, not only for income but for its continued survival.

The Co-operative was formally registered in the year 1956, born from the ambition of two hundred and fifty farmers who sought to bring order and equity to the marketing of their coffee. Since those early days, it has swelled in both scale and stature. Now encompassing seventeen processing sites and a membership exceeding eleven thousand smallholder farmers, it remains governed by a committee of seven. The Society functions not merely as a commercial hub but as a scaffold for its members' livelihoods, providing access to essential farming inputs, coffee seedlings from its nurseries, and a central dry mill, a facility funded through share contributions from the very farmers it serves.

Among the prized cultivars nurtured under the watchful eye of the Co-operative are SL28 peaberry and SL34 peaberry. These are mutations of their parent varietals, producing a single, rounded bean rather than the usual two halves. This singularity is often linked to greater flavour intensity and complexity, traits for which these varietals have earned considerable renown. SL28 is admired for its drought resistance and its bright, citrus-laden cup profile, while SL34 is valued for its rich body, deep berry notes and resilience under heavy rainfall, qualities that speak of adaptation, endurance and depth, much like the land and people from which they come.

The Co-operative’s commitment to ethical practices is underscored by its Fairtrade certification, which has permitted entry into more discerning and equitable markets. In doing so, it has extended the reach of this mountain-grown coffee to distant corners of the globe, returning benefits not only to individual farmers but to the community at large. The coffee produced under its auspices bears the mark of the Kenya Bureau of Standards, a guarantee of its quality and consistency, quiet but firm assertion of pride in the work.

Yet beyond commerce and cultivation lies a deeper duty. The Society does not turn its gaze solely inward. It lends support to the vulnerable, offering help to children's homes and constructing modest but vital infrastructure such as footbridges. Through alliances with organisations such as Tree House and Aga Khan Hospital, it has hosted medical camps, providing free health screenings to the very community whose hands tend the coffee trees. In this way, the Co-operative is more than a collective; it is a pillar, rising from a soil as rich in humanity as it is in coffee.