Kenyans finally smell the coffee as consumption grows
Mother and daughter are served at the Savanna coffee house on Loita Street, Nairobi. Photo / file
Nairobi used to be a second-string city when it came to coffee drinking compared to its regional peers.
Over the last three or so years, however, more and more cafes and coffee bars have been joining a small, dedicated group of establishments where coffee making is treated like an art.
At places like Java, the espresso can be so plush and bright that it tastes sweet on its own. The elaborate designs in the cappuccino’s foam at C. Dormans on Mana Ngina Street aren’t just to show off, but are a sign that the barista meticulously steamed the milk so that it holds its form.
At Savanna on Loita Street, you can get drip coffee brewed by the cup, not drawn from an urn.
For years the few Kenyans who craved coffee had to look to five-star hotels for this kind of quality. Even though Kenya’s colonial masters left masses of bushes of both coffee and tea in the country highlands, they have always adored their cup of tea.
This is a mannerism they left among Kenyans, one of the assumptions used to explain why when it comes to hot beverages – at home, in the offices or restaurants – Kenyans have always identified better with tea. Even most coffee farmers take tea.
While Kenya produces the best quality coffee, only 2 per cent is consumed locally. This is very low compared to Ethiopia, which produces more than Kenya but consumes about 50 per cent of it.
Not that exporting is a bad thing, as it fetches the country good earnings from the international market, but there has always been a need to grow the local market. Local coffee consumption trends, have however been showing steady improvement in the last couple of years.
Mr Eric Omondi, the director for retail operations at C. Dorman says, there has been “tremendous growth” in local coffee consumption over the past six years.
In 2004 coffee rated the least preferred among hot beverages with only 2 per cent of the population choosing it compared to tea which attracted 60 per cent and the rest 38 per cent choosing chocolate and cocoa. But the latest figures show coffee preference has improved to 8 per cent.
“This may be still low but it is a great step towards having coffee as a first choice beverage,” says Mr Omondi, whose company runs a chain of 11 Dormans coffee houses. He points out that 80 per cent of the coffee consumed in Kenya is instant, which is imported.
Kenyan produced coffee, which is Arabica, is never used to process instant coffee because, he says, of its high quality which makes it more expensive.
But still the players agree there is a budding coffee drinking culture in Kenya.
“We find that coffee is increasingly appealing because it is really fresh and good quality coffee from our own farms and many people are now developing the taste for really good coffee,” says Dr Caesar Mwangi, the managing director Sasini Ltd, which launched its Savanah coffee shops a few years ago.
The premium price, at least Sh150, is not a deterrent to the young middle-class professionals who not only want to taste fine coffee, but also make a class statement.
Mr Mwangi says Kenyan farmers produced 55,000 tonnes in 2008/09 season, out of which only 3 per cent was sold locally (1,650,000kg) in a population of 35 million, giving a per capita consumption of 0.05 kg per person. Ethiopia consumes half of its 300,000, translating to a per capita consumption of about 1.88 kg per person.
Others like Brazil consume about 5.81 kg per person and even the United Kingdom, which does not produce coffee, has an average of 2.8kg per person.
One of the indicators of the growing coffee culture in Kenya is the growing number of coffee shops. In just a few years big names like Dormans and Java are contending with competition from new entrants like Savannah, Coffee World, Kahawa, Kapital Coffee, the Coffee House and The Mug and many others have become concentrated in the city centre.
While this growth is a way by coffee brewers to tap in to the growing demand of coffee.
“In deed there is a growing appetite for coffee consumption among a certain category of Kenyans but I need to emphasise that the coffee should be served in a presentable and pleasant environment,” says Dr Mwangi of Sasini.
The company recently opened an additional coffee shop on Kenyatta Avenue to make its city branches to 5, while Java runs 10.
Before, coffee in the ordinary cafes was listed as either black or white but Kenyans are now identifying more with the variants like cappuccino, espresso, macchiato.
“We are seeing more customers through the shops demanding these specialty coffees by name,” says Mr Omondi.
Dormans, which has 10 branches in Nairobi and one in Mombasa, says it is targeting all market levels. It has also expanded its menu from just bitings and pastries, to serving full meals too keep a steady inflow of the customers throughout the day.
The company says it has invested over $1.8 million (over Sh130 million) in setting up coffee shops. Now it plans to open a new branch in places like Nanyuki town, in the heart of coffee growing, and is also looking in to franchising to support the rising demand.
Dr Mwangi says as more people try out coffee, as they meet to discuss business or just catch up, they discover an interesting variety introduce new friends to it.
However, sustainability of the coffee shops to meet this new demand is a hard task. The cheapest Cappuccino making machine costs about Sh300,000 and brewers, otherwise known as baristas, need to be trained.
Indeed, this is becoming a profession in Kenya and Dormans established the first barista training school three years ago.
