Day 7: Fairview Estate

Following the deadly protests in downtown Nairobi against the Kenyan Finance Bill on Tuesday, the head of security at the Swedish consulate advised staff and guests to avoid downtown and not venture too far from the diplomatic compound on Wednesday, so we mostly relaxed at home, except for an excursion to a nearby coffee farm for a tour. It was cool to see the fruit on the tree (ripe is red, green is not yet ready to be picked), but the production facilities were really primitive. Per our tour guide, there are up to 800,000 similar such "farms" around Kenya, producing some of the most popular beans consumed around the world. I have succumbed to drinking hot coffee while on vacation, because ice is not very prevalent in Africa and is one of the things our travel advisor consulted us against consuming, since you never know the water source. Anyway. Fairview Coffee was tasty. Carey and I both preferred the dark roast so we're bringing home a 500-gram bag of beans for $10.

Outside the Bailey's front door.

Not No. 4 Privet Drive, but No. 4 Rosslyn Valley Estates.

Swinging at a playground near their house.

Cool rhino planter at another house (there are 22 total in this development)

 

 

A garden at the coffee farm, allegedly popular for weddings.

They grow bananas, too.

Looked like a cool place to mountain bike. 100 acres.

They cultivate about 78,000 coffee trees.

The coffee cherries apparently fall in here after soaking and before having their slimy skins removed to reveal the bean underneath. Kinda gross looking.

 

The beans dry in the sun for 7-14 days.

This was during a morning walk around the development.

This, too.

These were two of the very fresh eight "taster" coffees, before the grounds were skimmed off the top. They had us dip spoons in and taste, trying to identify light, medium and dark roasts. Light was very sour, but two Germans on our tour preferred it. The Kenyan woman on our tour doesn't actually drink coffee, and her sister, who was born here but now lives in Italy, preferred the medium.