Basically, it boils down to a change of process. His theory is that the "special" taste of Kenyan coffee was due to the "secondary fermentation" step, which is actually a trick to free up drying space faster:
> In Kenya, this meant the introduction of the “double washed” or “double fermented” style of coffee many buyers are familiar with. Coffee would be fermented dry for 12-24 hours, washed, and then sent to a holding tank where it would be soaked in clean, cool water for up to an additional 24 hours or longer (the so-called “secondary fermentation”).
Since production has decreased, drying space is now more available, so the coffee now spends a much longer time there, and double fermentation (which is of course an additional step and requires additional effort, driving up costs) has all but disappeared, so the coffee now tastes different:
> I noted that some changes were made to the way the coffee was processed. Because drying space was no longer in short supply—except perhaps for a short while at peak harvest—the holding pens weren’t in use anymore. The coffee went on the beds and stayed there. And of course, because in Kenya’s export system a coffee must first pass through a dry mill before auction and export, this means that unlike other countries—where coffee can be stored in parchment to homogenize or stabilize prior to final sale, it’s removed from its protective layer months before shipping and stored in warehouses without climate control dotting Nairobi.
If it doesn’t stabilize during drying—like in a holding pen—it would be more susceptible to fade, a phenomenon I have observed in the samples I’d tasted and Kenyan coffees I’d hoped to enjoy from other roasters.
And then there was the fermentation: the factories I bought from no longer practiced Kenya’s signature “secondary fermentation” or soak—and they insisted that they weren’t the only ones who’d given up the practice. I looked around, and—they were right.
...and, last but not least, due to the "colonial" system, with only a few exporters raking in the profits and the individual producers not getting a fair share (and having no alternative but to sell to the oligopoly), they're not really incentivized to improve quality.
> In Kenya, this meant the introduction of the “double washed” or “double fermented” style of coffee many buyers are familiar with. Coffee would be fermented dry for 12-24 hours, washed, and then sent to a holding tank where it would be soaked in clean, cool water for up to an additional 24 hours or longer (the so-called “secondary fermentation”).
Since production has decreased, drying space is now more available, so the coffee now spends a much longer time there, and double fermentation (which is of course an additional step and requires additional effort, driving up costs) has all but disappeared, so the coffee now tastes different:
> I noted that some changes were made to the way the coffee was processed. Because drying space was no longer in short supply—except perhaps for a short while at peak harvest—the holding pens weren’t in use anymore. The coffee went on the beds and stayed there. And of course, because in Kenya’s export system a coffee must first pass through a dry mill before auction and export, this means that unlike other countries—where coffee can be stored in parchment to homogenize or stabilize prior to final sale, it’s removed from its protective layer months before shipping and stored in warehouses without climate control dotting Nairobi.
If it doesn’t stabilize during drying—like in a holding pen—it would be more susceptible to fade, a phenomenon I have observed in the samples I’d tasted and Kenyan coffees I’d hoped to enjoy from other roasters.
And then there was the fermentation: the factories I bought from no longer practiced Kenya’s signature “secondary fermentation” or soak—and they insisted that they weren’t the only ones who’d given up the practice. I looked around, and—they were right.
...and, last but not least, due to the "colonial" system, with only a few exporters raking in the profits and the individual producers not getting a fair share (and having no alternative but to sell to the oligopoly), they're not really incentivized to improve quality.