Tim Wendelboe Podcast

Author: timwendelboe

A podcast by award winning roaster and 2004 World Barista Champion, Tim Wendelboe
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Language: en

Genres: Arts, Education, Food, How To

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Episode 51 - Purchasing coffees in Kenya - Live from the cupping lab
Episode 51
Wednesday, 11 February, 2026

This episode was recorded "live" from the C. Dorman cupping lab while Tim was in Kenya in January in order to taste and select coffees for purchasing. Like many of our listeners and followers already know, we prefer to work directly with farmers over years in order to improve the quality of their coffees and their farms. Due to how the Kenyan coffee industry is organised, it is the only origin we buy from where we do not have a direct relationship with a single farmer. This is because the majority of the best coffees are coming from smallholder farmers who sell their coffee cherries to co-operatives, where the coffees are bulked together for processing and drying. Buying coffees in Kenya is therefore a bit different to what we are used to and Tim visits Kenya on an annual basis in order to taste through hundreds of coffee samples to make his selection every year. Listen in on Tim's thoughts around Kenyan coffee quality and how he approaches buying coffees in Kenya.