Kenya Kamavindi Estate

Why We Love It

It’s not everyday you meet someone like Peter Mbature. From the moment we first met Peter we knew we wanted to collaborate and support his vision for Kenyan coffee. Today, Peter is both an exporter and coffee producer, both producing and exporting the best coffees Kenya has to offer. His unwavering dedication and commitment to people and elevated quality is bringing Kenyan coffee back to the forefront of specialty coffee, and this selection from the Kamavindi Estate captures the passion and perseverance Peter exudes in all of his work. 

The 2025 Selection from the Kamavindi Estate is explosive and expressive, offering everything we love about Kenyan coffee: jammy blackberry, sparkling grapefruit acidity, tangy and compelling currants, and a subtle floral tea-like finish. 

About the Producer

We first met Peter in 2013 on a trip to Kenya. Even before we arrived, we had heard murmurings about him. People described Peter as a farmer with rare passion and vision, someone whose coffee stood out for both quality and integrity. When we finally visited his farm, we felt the energy of Peter’s vision immediately. Peter carries a quiet intensity: his passion is inspiring, and his curiosity is unmatched. Peter’s farm, the Kamavindi Estate, has become globally recognized for producing coffees that capture the most genuine essence of what makes Kenyan coffee special. 

But the story of Kamavindi begins with Peter’s grandfather, John Njiru Mbature, who started Kamavindi Estate during British colonial rule. At that time, native Kenyans were limited by law to just 100 coffee trees. It’s hard to imagine building anything from so little, but that’s exactly what John Mbature did. Over the decades, as those restrictions were lifted, the farm grew, and the passion for coffee passed from one generation to the next. Peter’s parents left the cooperative society model and built their own washing station. With this new ability to control the quality of their coffee, they invested and grew the farm even further. 

Today, Peter tends to more than ten thousand coffee trees, most of them the SL28 and SL34 varieties that gives Kenyan coffee its unmistakable intensity. When we visited them again in early 2023, we walked through the rows of trees, tasted fresh selections together, and saw how Peter continues to evolve his practices. He is always pushing forward, always searching for better ways to express the potential of his land. Peter’s innovative spirit is coming to fruition with the newest selection from Kamavindi in 2025. This coffee exhibits everything we love about Kenyan coffees: ripe and tart currants and blackberries, sparkling grapefruit acidity, and a touch of floral essences. What’s not to love? 

Read more about Peter in a recent interview.

About the Coffee

Kenyan coffee has a reputation for a reason: It has the potential to taste like nothing else. The most memorable selections are unmatched in intensity; whether it be sweetness, acidity, texture or character, these coffees are nothing but a joy to drink. Every year we return to Kenya, chasing that singular experience.

The secret often lies in the varieties. In the 1930s, researchers at Scott Agricultural Laboratories selected trees that showed promise in both resilience and flavor. Two of those selections, now called SL28 and SL34, became the foundation of Kenya’s best coffees. These trees produce the concentrated fruit character we love—blackberries, currants, and stone fruits with a gripping savory edge.

Peter focuses on cultivating both SL28 and SL34, with a smaller amount of Ruiru 11 as well. While hybrids like Ruiru offer certain advantages, such as higher yields, their flavor can’t hold a candle to the clarity and intensity of the original SL varieties. Peter’s coffees continue to improve year after year, and his careful approach to processing allows those unique flavors to shine. This year’s coffee also shows a soft floral quality that is rare in Kenyan coffees and makes this selection even more compelling.

And if Peter’s main selection from Kamavindi isn’t enough, he’s also cultivating Gesha, the most sought-after variety in the world. We’re thrilled to be featuring a handful of selections both from the Kamavindi Estate, such as the premier Gesha selection, as well as several selections from Cooperative Societies and individual producers that Peter is working with to improve quality and prices paid to producers this year. 2025 is the year of Kenyan coffee!