Wood Street Coffee Roasters | Tano Ngogo | Kenya
The Roaster
Wood Street coffee roasters are a speciality coffee roaster in Walthamstow, London. Their journey began in 2013 when the team started as a weekly pop up at Wood Street Market. Their popularity led to the opening four days a week in Walthamstow village. They lasted a mere 6 months before having to evolve again into a new space in the Blackhorse Workshop.
"The founders Clare and Gareth move quick and are always looking to adapt and grow Wood Street coffee roasters. "
With Walthamstow now firmly on the speciality coffee map they have positioned themselves nicely to take advantage of the modern-day coffee snob in search of high-quality caffeine.
Roasting their coffee on a Probat Wood Street coffee focus on quality and rotate fairly regularly. They source their coffee from all over the world and are passionate about pushing the boundaries of speciality coffee.
The Coffee
Kenya is a speciality coffee giant, alongside some of its East African neighbours, Kenya is highly renowned as one of the greatest coffee-producing countries in terms of quality.
With a fraction of the coffee history of its Northern neighbour Ethiopia, Kenya excelled in production in the 1950s and now has some of the most highly educated producers alongside the perfect coffee growing environment.
I always find it very difficult to opt for anything other than a Kenyan when I see it on filter in a cafe. The unique and extraordinary flavours that certain Kenyan coffees hold is remarkable.
Often bright with layers of complex berries as well as streaks of wine toned acidity wrapped in sweet fruit. Best prepared as a pour-over, the cup often evolves as it cools.
Tano Ndogo was established in 1965 and is exclusively using the variety of SL28 where the most nuanced coffee characteristics can be found. The varietal alongside the altitude of 1,820 MASL creates a wonderful complexity in the cup.
The Muuru brothers, Francis, David, James, John and Joseph, are experienced coffee farmers as can be seen by the excellent condition of their trees which they hope will each yield a respectable 30kg of cherries in the harvest of 2018/19. This year the farm produced around 180 bags of coffee in total.
The Tano Ndogo wet-mill processes coffee using methods typical throughout Kenya. Local people are paid to pick the ripe coffee cherries between October and January and these are pulped using disc pulpers in the wet mill.
Once the mucilage is loose, the beans take on a pebble-like feel and so the fermentation process is halted by washing the beans in channels full of water, where further quality separation takes place, since low grade ‘floaters’ can be directed away from the dense high-quality beans.
Next, the parchment coffee is channelled to a soak tank where it sits in cold water for around 24 hours, a process which develops the amino acids within the beans and is thought to contribute to Kenyan coffee’s unique flavours.
The parchment is laid in a thin layer upon raised beds and allowed to dry under the sun for between 11 and 14 days.
The Review
The Kenyan Tano Ngogo from Wood Street Coffee Roasters begins its sensory takeover as soon as you open the bang, like with many Kenyans I have tasted over the years fruit is forward right from the get-go. Stone fruits like plums are certainly there, hints of acidity too.
The brewing process was also a wonderful experience. The sweetness of the coffee really shone through and it was already clear that this was going to be a special coffee.
The first few sips of the coffee are pleasant, the idea of acidy in the fragrance is muted and creates a smooth tasting drink. The coffee is full of flavour, stone fruits and hints of blackcurrant stick around at the front of your palate. The coffee has a fairly light body with a juicy brightness and a long sweet aftertaste.
The coffee cools all the way down to room temperature and adopts a slightly different profile. The fruit-forward initial tastes are replaced with a more sugary note with vanilla. The acidy then takes shape and delicately creates a lemonade aftertaste.
A coffee that I would share with a mate that likes coffee. It isn’t as bold and brash as some of the other Kenyans out there but is super enjoyable and complex right until the end.
Pour-over or paper filter for me with this coffee. The filter lets the delicate acidity towards the end shine. I did also find that it worked well as a cafetiere, the acidity is replaced by body and unifies the coffee quite nicely.
