Embu

Embu is a coffee county on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Smallholders farm coffee alongside maize, beans and bananas in the warm, humid upper midlands and bring their cherry to co-operative factories, as Kenya’s wet mills are called. The best lots are bright and juicy, with red currant and jasmine.

The short version

• Mount Kenya’s slopes, in the upper midlands.
• Jasmine, red currant and citrus, scored 93–95 by Coffee Review.
• SL28 and SL34, with some Ruiru 11.
• 6,881 hectares of coffee in 2022.
• Sh1.6 billion at auction in 2025/26.

What does Embu coffee taste like?

Bright, juicy and floral. Coffee Review’s blind assessments of washed coffees from Embu County:

Year	Coffee	Score	Notes
2018	Uteuzi Jimbo (Gakui wet mill)	94	Red currant, butterscotch, fresh-cut cedar, tamarind, lantana-like flowers
2020	Gicherori Factory AA Top (Kibugu co-operative)	95	Star jasmine, tangerine zest, red currant, a hint of coriander; vibrant, juicy acidity
2025	Embu (smallholders)	95	Ripe tomato, narcissus, cedar, red currant, almond butter; plush, syrupy
2025	“Muranga’a”	93	Black currant, pink grapefruit, dusky rose, baking chocolate

Source: Coffee Review. The last coffee was sold under the name Muranga’a but listed by Coffee Review as from Embu County. All were grown from SL28 and SL34; the Gakui lot also included Ruiru 11. The Gakui wet mill belongs to the Gakundu Farmers’ Co-operative Society, which runs four.

Where and how is it grown?

Embu rises from about 515 metres in the Tana basin in the east to 5,199 metres at the top of Mount Kenya, the county plan says. Coffee belongs to the upper midlands (UM1), warm, humid areas such as Kyeni North, Kagaari and Gaturi North, where maize, beans, coffee and bananas are the key crops. Kenya’s main crop is picked from late October to early January, with a fly crop in May and June, the Daily Nation reports.

The 2023-27 plan sets out work on coffee:

Plan	Detail
Coffee revitalisation	Runyenjes and Manyatta sub-counties: nurseries, farmer training, input subsidies, modern processing
Factories	Upgrade old pulping machines to eco-pulpers; drying tables, fermentation tanks, water recirculation, solar driers
Milling	Operationalise the Kavutiri coffee mill and a county coffee marketing agency
Law	An Embu County coffee bill was developed but not enacted

Source: Embu County Integrated Development Plan 2023-2027.

How much coffee does Embu grow?

Measure	Figure	Source
Area under coffee, June 2022	6,881 ha, eighth of all counties	Ministry of Agriculture, via Business Daily
Auction earnings, 2025/26 (to July)	Sh1.6 billion, seventh, behind Bungoma	Nairobi Coffee Exchange, via The Star

No tonnage for Embu was published in these reports.

Embu and other Kenyan origins

• Coffee in Kenya: the whole country, its auction and its harvest.
• Kirinyaga: the county that sold the most coffee at auction early in 2024/25.
• Meru: another county on Mount Kenya.