Muthonjo is a family run coffee farm located on the outskirts of the Mt. Kenya forest. Established in the late 50’s by Grace Muthoni and her husband Isaac Njogu, the name “Muthonjo” comes from a combination of their last names. The farm was passed down to their four sons Norman, Cyrus, Walter and Patrick who have decided to work together to manage the farm with their families today. When the farm first started, Muthonjo sold coffee cherries to a local cooperative where they would be purchased at a lower price and folded into larger blends. In 2000 they decided to begin processing their own coffee with the hope they could achieve higher prices by improving quality. This decision has allowed them to market their coffee directly to roasters, which Norman’s daughter Purity has done well through social media.
We met the family a little bit by chance. We went into a 2014 sourcing trip hoping to meet the folks at Muthonjo after tasting an amazing sample the season prior. During a visit to another farm, Kambarari Estate, we ran into one of the brothers: Walter Nyaga, who let us know we were standing right down the road from Muthonjo. Serendipitously, our work with Muthonjo began. Since that visit, we’ve been back several times over the years and have been delighted to see incremental improvements to their post-harvest processing setup that have mirrored gains in cup quality.
Muthonjo is a part of the Kushikamana group, a project supported by Counter Culture. The group came to life when small-farm owners around Mt. Kenya started working together to discuss and test new techniques to improve the quality of their coffee. These historically independent growers chose the name Kushikamana, which means "connected" in Swahili, to represent the unity of their group.
