Rosebella - Kenya

Chepsangor Hills Estate sits in Kenya's Nandi Hills at 1,700–2,000 meters, where Dr. Rosebella Langat and her husband have built one of the more ambitious vertically integrated operations in the region since founding the farm in 2018 - meaning they grow, process, and export their coffee entirely in-house, from cherry to container. The estate grows a mix of SL28, Batian, and Ruiru 11, three varieties bred for different reasons (SL28 for its cup quality, Batian and Ruiru 11 for disease resistance), which gives Rosebella a lot of raw material to experiment with.

And experiment she does. In 2025, Chepsangor hosted a processing workshop with microbiologist Lucia Solis, resulting in a handful of experimental lots using controlled yeast and bacterial fermentations designed not just to chase flavor, but to improve consistency and reduce labor for the processing team. This lot is one of two that came out of that workshop: cherries were washed and then given a 48-hour controlled Saccharomyces fermentation before drying, a process that trades some of the wilder unpredictability of natural fermentation for a cleaner, more dialed-in cup.

Rosebella's impact extends well past her own harvest. She helped establish Chepsangor Women in Coffee, a producer group of 100+ women farmers who receive seedlings, training, and processing support through the estate. The group runs fermentation camps, organic farming workshops, and leadership training, all aimed at building long-term profitability and independence for women farmers in the region.

Total output at Chepsangor Hills is small - an average of 300 bags a year across all lots - and most of their coffee goes to Europe. We feel incredibly fortunate to have acquired this microlot - now we just have to try to not drink it all ourselves!