By Mukurima X MuriukiA few weeks ago, friend called me inquiring how he could get coffee from Baricho. I punched the air with euphoria, excited that the labor of talking about Baricho was finally paying off!As is my tradition whenever somebody asks me anything about my village, I began:“You know Baricho is the greatest village in the world.” I began to recite. “It is the village of Kibinda SImon the greatest soccer star we have around, popular for his HARD tackles that locals decided to nickname him “Adinesi….” I was about to get to the next paragraph to introduce Baricho as the first home of missionaries to Kenya when reality hit, where, home!!!
A sad “aha” moment arrested my mental sheets: There is no coffee in Baricho. And how did a friend who has never been to Kenya or any African country know about Baricho?“Are you sure you are talking about Baricho? I asked, hoping that I was wrong and he was right.“Yeah. The one I have here reads…B as in Banana……A as in Angela. R as in Radiation. I as in Independent . C as in Clinton. H as in Hillary....By this I was smiling ear to ear. I was about to stop him, when he muttered:“And U for Uhuru.…”I laughed. A little bit..So after all it wasn’t Baricho he was talking about, but Barichu….Now, this is why my friend was making an inquiry about coffee from Barichu.The reason my friend was excited about Barichu coffee was not because of how well the farmers are getting paid (last year, Barichu coffee farmers were paid Ksh 97 per kg of Cherry). Heck he doesn’t even know what farmers go through! My friend happened to attend the Coffee Expo in Seattle a few weeks ago, and its where he came across an American company exhibiting a beer brand called Mount Kenya IPA.So what does this beer got to do with coffee? Or Barichu?Well, the American brewer is using coffee from Barichu to infuse taste into ale, giving it a crisp and complex taste, you know, like that first taste of water after walking thousands of mile in the desert!And. And. You know why they are going for Barichu coffee? Because farmers are paying attention to the crop. Making sure it’s ripe and ready, and when the factory gets the coffee, it is well washed, fermented and carefully dried.https://www.instagram.com/p/BTajQ3TAJgX/?tagged=mountkenyaipa&hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTP5iv8ByPH/?tagged=mountkenyaipa&hl=en https://www.instagram.com/p/BSuwBULFLGe/?tagged=mountkenyaipa&hl=en
Congratulation people of Nyeri. Hail Nyeri farmers. We may disagree on how you say "all the baskets" in mother tongue, but on this, I give you a basket full of plaudits!
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