Kenya Washed Nyota AB

The Everyday Brilliant

Some coffees are for special occasions. Nyota is for every morning. Its name means "star" in Swahili, and it earns it — sweet, rounded and endlessly drinkable, with grape and raisin sweetness, smooth milk chocolate and a gentle almond nuttiness. All the character Kenya is loved for, in a friendly, welcoming cup.

Nyota is a regional selection drawn from smallholder cooperatives across the Kenya Central Highlands, blended for consistency so it's brilliant cup after cup. Roasted fresh at our Upper Hutt roastery and rested for 30 days, it's the perfect place to start with Kenya — and a coffee you'll keep coming back to.

Origin: Kenya
Producer: Smallholder farmers across multiple Central Highlands cooperatives
Location: Kenya Central Highlands
Altitude: 1,500–2,000 masl 
Variety: SL28, Ruiru 11 & Batian 
Process: Washed
Grade: AB — a bean size, not a quality ranking (more on that below)

Tasting Notes

Grape, raisin, milk chocolate, almond

Sweet grape and raisin give Nyota a lovely dried-fruit depth, while smooth milk chocolate and a gentle almond nuttiness make it comforting and balanced. It's a softer, sweeter take on Kenya — less razor-sharp acidity, more approachable, moreish drinkability. Excellent black, and a genuine standout in milk.

The Everyday Brilliant: What a Regional Blend Really Offers

We'll be upfront: Nyota isn't a single-farm coffee, and that's the whole point. Rather than coming from one washing station, it's a carefully chosen selection blended from smallholder cooperatives across the Central Highlands — Kenya's classic coffee heartland, all high altitude and red volcanic soil.

Bringing several lots together has a real upside: consistency. Where a single micro-lot can be thrilling but fleeting, Nyota is built to deliver a dependable, rounded Kenyan character every single time — which makes it a brilliant everyday coffee and a genuinely welcoming way in.

And since it's graded "AB," here's a friendly myth to bust: AB refers to the beans' size (screen 15/16), not their quality. It's simply the most common grade in a Kenyan harvest — and often intensely good. Bigger beans (AA) aren't automatically better; it's all about how the coffee's grown and made.

Why This Coffee?

At Frank's, Generosity and Growth are what this coffee is all about.

• Generosity & accessibility: This is our welcoming, everyday Kenyan — dependable, affordable and genuinely delicious. It reflects our vision of making delicious coffee accessible to everyone.
• Growth: The perfect coffee to get to know Kenya with — no vocabulary required, just an easy, rewarding cup that invites you in.
• Excellence: Even as our everyday Kenyan, it's a proper specialty coffee, roasted by the team behind New Zealand's 2023 Barista Champion and a 4th-place finish at the 2024 World Barista Championship.
• Passion: Blended and roasted with care to be reliably brilliant — because the coffee you drink every day deserves just as much attention as the rare stuff.

Brewing Recommendations

Friendly, rounded and forgiving — Nyota is especially lovely in milk.

For Espresso Dose: 18g Yield: 36–41g (1:2–1:2.3) Time: 26–30 seconds Temperature: 93–94°C The milk-chocolate, almond and raisin profile is a natural fit for a flat white.

For Filter (V60) Coffee: 15g Water: 240g (1:16 ratio) Temperature: 92–95°C Grind: Medium Brew time: 2:45–3:15 Brings out the grape and raisin sweetness — a balanced, easy brew.

Peak Freshness: 10–21 days post-roast, once the flavours settle and round out.

These are our recommended starting points — adjust to your taste. Great coffee is coffee you enjoy.

Meet the Cooperatives

Nyota is the work of many hands. It brings together coffee from smallholder farmers across several cooperatives in the Kenya Central Highlands — growers tending small family plots at high altitude, in the red volcanic soils that give Kenyan coffee its reputation. Kenya's cooperative model lets these small producers pool their cherry, share processing infrastructure and reach the wider market together.

Blending across cooperatives like this is what gives Nyota its consistency — and lets us offer a dependable, high-quality Kenyan at an everyday price. We've sourced it through our East African partner Cofinet as a reliable, welcoming favourite for the shelf.

Process & Sustainability

Nyota is made using Kenya's traditional washed method — pulped, fermented to break down the fruity mucilage, then washed thoroughly. That careful washing is what gives Kenyan coffee its signature clarity, letting the natural fruit and sweetness come through cleanly. Because Nyota draws on several washing stations, each contributes its own small part to the balanced whole.

Your everyday star — dependable, delicious, and roasted with care in Upper Hutt.

Questions about this coffee? Get in touch — we love talking coffee.