Hundreds of Cuppers to Help Build a Kenya Coffee Flavor Atlas

Courtesy photo.

A new initiative in Kenya plans to document the country’s diverse coffee flavors through a coordinated tasting effort involving more than 500 samples from 34 counties.

The Kenya Coffee Flavor Map project aims to recruit 300 professional cuppers from Kenya and abroad to evaluate coffees during a three-day gathering in Nairobi this month. The resulting data will be used to create a publicly accessible coffee flavor atlas, scheduled for release in 2027.

The project is the centerpiece of the Kenya Coffee Flavor & Origin Expo, scheduled for Nov. 14-16 at the Shamba Events Centre in Nairobi. The cupping sessions are scheduled for Nov. 15-16.

According to the organizers, the project is designed to connect sensory characteristics with geographic origins, coffee varieties, growing conditions and post-harvest processing methods.

Beyond giving Kenyan coffee producers, traders and buyers a reference for identifying and communicating regional differences, a broader goal is to support export market development, according to a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announcement. 

Who Is Behind the Project?

The Expo is being presented by the Coffee Board of Kenya, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Kenya and the Kenya Coffee Platform, a national forum bringing together coffee producers, traders, government agencies and other organizations to address industry challenges.

The project’s technical partner is Torch Coffee, a coffee and education company with operations in China, Kenya and other coffee-producing countries. 

Torch previously organized a series of regional coffee flavor mapping exercises in China’s Yunnan province between 2021 and 2024. Those projects similarly used large-scale sensory evaluations to generate regional flavor profiles, with the resulting maps made publicly available.

“The map starts with curiosity about the coffees already here,” Torch Coffee Co-Founder Marty Pollack said in an announcement of the event shared with DCN. “Bringing people together to compare their experiences gives that curiosity a practical form: knowledge they can share and use.”

Expanding Coffee Flavor Tools

As the coffee industry has increasingly embraced standardized sensory language globally, the Kenya initiative is notable in its regional focus. 

The Specialty Coffee Association’s Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel, which was substantially revised in 2016, remains the industry’s most recognizable sensory reference. The revised wheel was built on the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon, which established a standardized vocabulary for describing coffee flavors and aromas.

More recently, the ASEAN Coffee Federation introduced the ASEAN Flavour Sphere, a sensory tool designed to reflect Southeast Asian coffees and incorporate regionally relevant flavor descriptors. The organization subsequently launched its own coffee evaluation framework.

The effort in Kenya also comes as producers, traders and buyers wrangle with how coffee is evaluated and valued in both domestic and international markets. 

Martin Shebaya. Courtesy photo.

“The Kenya Coffee Flavor Map represents something truly powerful: an opportunity for Kenya to tell its own coffee story through the voices, knowledge and experiences of its people,” said four-time Kenyan national barista champion and Shabaya Ltd founder Martin Shabaya. 

A Public Resource for Kenyan Coffee

Organizers say the completed Kenya Coffee Flavor Atlas will include regional flavor profiles, visual maps and a sensory database, with the materials available for free download and use.

The initiative also comes amid growth in Kenya’s domestic coffee market. According to figures from Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), the number of coffee shops in the country increased from 231 in 2019 to 791 in 2023.

Organizers are inviting experienced Kenyan and international cuppers to apply for the November evaluations.

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