Kenya | Oreti-Chania
Chocolate, gingerbread, rhubarb.
Boyce Harries is the 5th generation of the family to manage the two Chania and Oreti plantations. These two farms are the last remaining medium-sized farms in Kenya. We’ve been buying Boyce coffees directly since 2017, which is a great advantage because there are usually up to 7 intermediaries separating a producer from the final buyer!
The Oreti Estate farm has been owned by the Harries family for several generations. It is one of the last two remaining medium-sized farms in Kenya and is located on deep volcanic red soils. This small 35-hectare farm (which is in fact a large farm by Kenyan standards) was named after New Zealand’s Oreti Beach, where Boyce’s grandfather met his grandmother for the first time.
Peter Harries decided to plant 17 hectares of SL14 alongside the SL28 in 1961. Although particularly susceptible to disease, the family has kept this variety because it’s of a higher quality than SL28.
The farms have 40 full-time staff, but employ up to 300 people during harvests to select and prepare the coffees. The farm has opened its own nursery school to take care of its employees’ children. All the coffee is picked entirely by hand and processed on site. Most are washed, but Boyce also produces natural and honey-processed coffees as well as microlots of specific varieties.
$16