Coffee Plantation

About Mbandi Coffee

Mbandi Estate is Located in lower Eastern part of Kenya around Tala region. The farm is right at the slopes of the Kilimambogo which is a very a good catchment area for growing coffee. The farm sits on twenty acres of land which is well managed through use of good agricultural practices.

The coffee varieties grown at Mbandi farm are SL 28 that are very good for flavor attributes. The coffee is grown on red volcanic loam soil at an altitude of 1580 degrees above sea level.

Cup Quality:

Good mild acidity
Good body
Good after taste

Flavor Attributes:

Floral with after taste of tangerine / Mellow Finish

Coffee taste profile:

After coffee is harvested Mbandi estate has appointed New KPCU as a miller and a marketer, Coffee is milled an analyzed through sensory evaluation the parameters used when analyzing is olfactory and organoleptic.

Why choose Our Coffee

Elevating coffee excellence

Rich Soil and High Altitude Advantage

The farm is right at the slopes of the Kilimambogo which is a very a good catchment area for growing coffee. Mbandi coffee benefits from the ideal combination of red volcanic loam soil and high altitude conditions of 1580 degrees above sea level. , resulting in beans that are rich in flavor and complexity.

Sustainable Growing Practices

Our coffee is sustainably grown, with rainfall patterns carefully monitored and water sourced from a pristine dam. There are tadpoles in kwa matingi water dam which proves that environmental conservation activities around the dam are well maintained.
There are beehives from neighboring farms which help in pollination which is an advantage to the production of excellent coffee quality.

Meticulous Wet Processing Techniques

Coffee processing is through wet processing. When processing coffee is given time at the fermentation tanks to break down the mucilage into simple non-sticky substances Monitoring is done to avoid overfermentation.
Coffee after fermentation is washed and dried in a well elevated drying beds to attain the right moisture content

Check our Coffee varieties

Indulge in the rich flavors and unique profiles of our special coffee varieties, meticulously cultivated at Mbandi Estate.

SL 28

The coffee varieties grown at Mbandi farm are SL 28

This variety is very good for flavor attributes.

SL28 is among the most well-known and well-regarded varieties of Africa. It has consequently spread from Kenya, where it was originally selected in the 1930s, to other parts of Africa. SL28 is notable for its rusticity—a quality meaning that it can be left untended for years or even decades at a time, and then return to successful production.

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Known for its erratic weather conditions and long dry periods, one can hardly tell the possibility of any of the Kenya’s main cash crops, especially coffee which requires not less than 1000 mm rainfall and deep well-drained red loam soils, thriving in Ukambani, located in the semi-arid South Eastern part of the country.
However, posing a striking contrast from the ‘reality’ is this coffee farm about 12 acres large situated few metres from Tala-Ol Donyo Sabuk Road belonging to, one, Thomas Masila Mutunga, a farmer from Tala, Machakos County.
He had started in 2001 with some bushes which were planted by his late grandfather, inherited by his late father who bequeathed him the same.
As you get closer, your sight is greeted with dark-green leaves of coffee bushes of trees about seven feet high with overlapping branches heavily loaded with healthy green berries bending some trees sideways.
He is also a diploma holder in Cooperative Management from Kabete Technical Institute in 1998 and Accounts and Economics graduate from UoN in 2014.

According to Masila, it was until 2010, 2011 and 2012 when his venture recorded a turnaround following a rise in coffee prices selling at Ksh30,000-40,000 per 50kg bag of premium coffee of grade AA, AB, and C.
While still working as school bursar at Matungulu Girls Secondary, a job he started in 2001, he continued farming on part time also trying his hands on other crops such as tomatoes, watermelon, bananas and maize through irrigation. However, this could not last as farm managers and workers he entrusted with day-to-day farm operations messed up things.
“I decided, in 2019 at the heat of COVID-19, to take a big risk of leaving formal employment to solely focus on coffee farming and since then I have never looked back,” said Masila.

Coming through for Masila was about Ksh4 million Commodities Funds loan by the government that he had received while working, having applied, to enable him establish new coffee estates.
Generally, this fund was used to buy certified seedlings from KALRO-Coffee Research Institute (CRI) Ruiru nurseries, fertilizer, fuel for water pumping and labour.
“I was able to plant 10,000 new coffee trees by 2021 which have started yielding fruits with first harvest from the new established coffee estates being last year July getting 100 bags of 50kg of coffee cherries,” he said adding that the funds have been of much help.

Another secret of Masila’s good harvests is that he has installed irrigation system that draws water from the nearby streams and Kwamatingi water dam using a generator pump, store the water in some 30,000-litre capacity water tanks and use it to water the plants in dry seasons to maintain the yields.
Besides the recommended synthetic fertilizer that he supplies to the crops regularly, animal and compost manure from the wastes of coffee cherries after pulping has been a major supplement reducing his cost of production.
Habitual organized weeding program has made his farms a model as compared to the neighbouring estates that were established by the colonial government and currently not managed well as the current owners apply herbicides for weeds control, no pruning and fertilizer application.

Before, Masila and other coffee farmers from the surrounding used to sell their coffee cherries through a local cooperative which did the pulping and grading before selling but was paying just Ksh20 per kilo of processed berries.
However, things have changed now for him and the area farmers after he installed a pulping machine with a capacity of processing one tonne per hours.
The processed berries are then spread on metallic driers in the sun to reduce their moisture content before being packed for market.
Through the New KPCU, farmers are also best placed to get agronomic trainings, have their cherries milled, access input subsidies, and loans besides market linkages, according to him.

Currently, Masila is working with the New KPCU as one of the directors representing coffee farmers drawn from the lower eastern region that comprises of Machakos, Makueni and Taita Taveta counties.
He also belongs to groups of local coffee farmers a platform they use to exchange knowledge, bargain for better prices and urging for more farmers especially the youth to join coffee farming.
“An average age for a coffee farmer in Kenya today is 60. This means that if we have to have such farmers in future, more youth need to roped in, even if they are to be supported to start with as few as 200 trees,” said Musila.
He is glad that some youth from the area have started showing interest in coffee farming by owning some few farms besides their normal boda boda business.