A washed Kenya from a single farm in Kiambu, roasted light to light-medium. The fruit and sweetness people love in a Kenya, without the sharp citrus bite.
Never miss the next one. Folio Reserve is one 250g bag every month, $26 shipped or $22 San Jose pickup.
Filter coffee, plainly. Not the Kenya that scours your teeth. Let the cup cool a while, because this one keeps giving up more as it does.
One farm, not a co-op blend. Spike Farm sits at 1,930 metres in the Kaira-ini area of Kiambu, growing SL-28, SL-34 and Ruiru 11, washed the Kenyan way and dried on raised beds. Our importer liked it enough to buy three separate out-turns from the same harvest.
Brown sugar and maple to start, turning to spiced sarsaparilla and clove gum as it cools. Tangy like dried tamarind and cranberry, with a long finish of spiced sugars. It has the fruited sweetness people love in a Kenya without the screaming citric edge.
Every bag is hand-stamped and numbered in the series. A QR on the back opens the full issue online: the story of the lot, how we roasted it, and a brew note. 250g, roasted fresh the week it ships.
A pour-over starting point for Nº 04. Go finer or hotter for more body, coarser for a cleaner cup, then dial it to your taste.
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I found this type of bean on Reddit, which is one of the ways I source interesting coffees. Someone had posted about the best espresso shot they had ever pulled, better than competition blends, and it was a Kenya from a farm called Spike. So I got curious and researched the farm. I realized the lot the Redditor had bought was the AB type, and the one I wanted was the AA, which our importer rates more highly and marks as not for espresso at all. It's two different separations off the same farm and same harvest. I liked the cupping notes: it has the fruited sweetness people chase in a Kenya, without the screaming citric side that usually comes with it. After the volume of Nº 03, that sounded like exactly the right next issue.
We tasted a lot of samples and released one. This lot stalled on the recipe we started with, so we rebuilt the roast between batches and held full power all the way to first crack.
A washed AA from Spike Farm, in the Kaira-ini area of Kiambu, at 1,930 metres. Twelve hectares, planted about twelve years ago in SL-28, SL-34 and Ruiru 11. Pulped on a small electric pulper, fermented 72 hours, washed, then dried on raised beds for about ten days. Grade AA, 17 to 19 screen, 0.2 defects per 300g. Our importer scored it 90.8, high enough to sit in the band they call outstanding (their scale runs to 110, not 100). They liked the farm enough to buy three separate out-turns from that harvest: the AA, the AB and the Peaberry.
Two 650g batches on a new Aillio Bullet R2 Pro. The first followed a published recipe that steps the power down as the drum climbs, and it stalled at every step: the rate of rise collapsed at 293°F, then again at 356°F. Those recipes were written for smaller batches on the older machine. The second batch held full power straight through to first crack. Cleaner curve, no rescues, 39 seconds faster.
We kept the second profile. First crack at 7:08, dropped 1:20 later at 406°F. That is light to light-medium, the band our importer recommends for this lot: light enough to hold the fruit, not so light it goes thin. Give it 7 to 10 days off the roast date, and let the cup cool before you judge it.
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Explore favors & giftsFolio is the two of us, roasting in San Jose and bagging it together. One coffee a month, picked because we were curious about it. Roasted in small batches, and sent out with an essay that tells you why. That's the whole story. We'd rather do one thing well each month than fill a shelf you have to sort through.
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