031 - Gerald Njagi

This coffee is exclusively available to Aviary full season subscribers and will be roasted the week of October 4, 2026.

The tenth coffee of our 2026 season comes from a third-generation coffee producer chasing the revival of the "World's Greatest Coffee"— a washed SL* from Gerald Ngaji and the Kambarare Estate through the Retro 84 Project, presenting in the cup structured and vibrant with classic Kenyan notes of black and red currant, elderflower, mango, orange blossom and mandarin.

From Christopher: "Of all the pieces I've shared on my blog, none has been viewed more times than my post about the apparent decline in the quality of Kenyan coffee, which I referred to as “The World’s Greatest Coffee.” My analysis implicated a few phenomena: from processing practices changing as a result of shrinking production, to a Byzantine marketing system that once  prohibited direct export, to government corruption, and, of course, a changing climate. In spite of this cumulative pressure, though, the quality potential for Kenyan coffee remains high; the country's average quality exceeds many of the best cups I've tasted from a score of other countries.

"Much of the discussion around Kenyan coffee quality centers around the now-infamous cultivars that came out of the Scott Laboratories research station in Kenya a century ago—like SL28 and SL34. I've heard much speculation and lament that the apparent decline in Kenyan coffee may also be related to a decline in production of these two high-quality cultivars (SL28 in particular) with the ascendancy of Batian and Ruiru 11.

"The 'Retro 84' project, a collaboration born between Peter Mbature of the Kamavindi estate, Tim Hill and Lance Schnorenberg of Sey, aims to recapture the electric Kenyan cups of the past by separating Kenya’s infamous SLs and producing microlots using processing methods more typical of Kenya in the 1980s than 2010s. Third-generation coffee producer Gerald Njagi, whose Kambarare estate is nearby Kamavindi, joined the project for its first year in 2024. More than a decade earlier, in 2011, Tim Hill had fallen in love with coffee from  Kambarare—and Gerald tells me that he’s counted Tim as a close friend since 2013 as he continued to produce and sell coffee to Counter Culture.

"As a young coffee buyer, it was a cup of coffee from Kambarare, roasted by Counter Culture, that transformed my understanding of what Kenyan coffee could be. And my fascination with Kenyan coffees and the breeding program run by Scott Labs that produced some of the most-famous and sought-after cultivars in the world motivates much of the work that I do as a buyer. For this reason, Colombians that taste like Kenyans (such as those from Lino Rodriguez), and apparently-Kenyan cultivars appearing where they were previously unknown (such as SL9/Inca Gesha in Peru) anchor Aviary's 2026 season. The mystery of the SL varieties—particularly recent genetic uncertainty surrounding SL28—only heightened my interest in returning to Kenya.

"And so: when Lance invited me to give feedback on some of the coffees from the Retro 84 project this year—and to meet Gerald to talk about experiments for the coming harvest—I was eager. I'm grateful to Lance and Sey for sharing a portion of this lot with Aviary as our introduction to the project—a stunning representation of Kenyan coffee: vibrant, structured, bright and juicy with notes of black and red currants, orange blossom, mango and elderflower.