New Ground Coffee Roaster | Mweiga | Kenya
The Roaster
New Ground are a speciality coffee roaster in heart of Headington, one of Oxfords busiest suburbs.
These guys have been around for a few years now but only relatively recently moved to their own state of the art roastery.
Having outgrown their roots after supplying the likes of Soho Farmhouse and the Oxford Kitchen, New ground changed gear and really started to accelerate towards being one of the most pioneering roasters in the UK.
"New pushes boundaries. It is thinking differently about what has come before and never settling for the ordinary. "
Owners Dickon and Joel are passionate about the coffee they roast as well as the while at the same time creating a community around the coffee and giving something back to the community they are in.
The coffee that they source is sourced ethically from small scale farms around the world. They usually showcase a couple of blends a decaf and around 6-8 single origins all of which are super high quality.
They roast the coffee in Oxford on a Loring roaster which is leading the way in quality and efficiency making it one of the most environmentally friendly roasters out there.
Speciality coffee is the platform that New ground have used to focus on their community.
It's well known that prisoners are much more likely to re-offend after release if they are without training and jobs.
So New Ground use their business to create work and training opportunities for ex-offenders across the UK, giving some of the most overlooked people in society a new beginning.
The Coffee
The Mweiga Coffee from New Ground is naturally processed on raised African beds. Natural processing is a rarity in Kenya, which has built a fine reputation on the back of exceptional fully washed coffees.
Ripe cherries are selectively harvested and floated to select only the ripest, highest quality cherries for processing. These cherries are placed in a single layer on raised drying beds and dried in the sun for up to 6 weeks.
The cherries must be manually turned periodically every day to ensure an even drying and prevent mould formation. Once the coffee has reached its optimum moisture content it is rested before being hulled, graded further, handpicked, and finally bagged.
Photo; The national news
Kiambu County is located just outside of Nairobi city. The region has a long history of coffee production and is famous for its large estates, which were originally built by British colonists in the early 20th century. After decolonisation, the estates were sold to local Kenyans who have been managing them since.
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.
The Review
Opening the bag of Mweiga from New Ground was a fruit bomb of flavours that were about to come.
A juicy fruit-forward fragrance that blooms into a box of sugary treats that fizz throughout the aroma.
The coffee starts with a delicious quench of orange juice, the flavours race to the back corners of your palate and stick around for a fairly lengthy aftertaste.
The coffee cools and the juicy acidity becomes even more intense with the notes of orange juice becoming more of a freshly squeezed juice than a store-bought ‘Sunny-D-esque’ one.
As the coffee cools even more and approaches room temp the acidity is muted with a sugary sweetness.
The coffee drinking experience is world-class. The uniqueness of the process was executed well by New ground, the intricacies and delicious juiciness of the coffee were perfectly highlighted in the roast. Something that is not easily done.
A special coffee that has some special flavours. Works best for me when filtered through paper. I’d recommend Cupping the coffee too and seeing what flavours you get.
