Though Kenyan coffees have famously been criticized for having deteriorated in quality since their peak in the 2010’s… we still can’t help but notice that every single year, we find something that harkens back to the familiar feels of our early days of coffee infatuation. This year, that coffee is this peaberry lot from the Ndiara Washing Station in Murang’a County — just north of the best known county on the Kenyan coffee map, Nyeri.

~400 smallholder farmers deliver cherry to Ndiara, based in the town of Ndiara as well as the neighboring towns of Kagumoini, Kagioni, Mathioya, Kiogini and Kiriani. Ndiara is one of five stations belonging to the Kiru Farmers Cooperative Society, which in total serves about 5,000 smallholder farmers. Though the Kiru society has existed since the 70s, Ndiara has been in operation since 1999, steadily investing in the infrastructure it takes to sustain quality—and this lot proves they’ve still got it.

With that inimitable balance of puckery tartness and darkly sweet depth, Ndiara brings BLACKCURRANTS to the table like only Kenya can, playing off mandarin orange citrus on top of wonderfully rich fruit leather rolling out with all the aplomb of a red carpet strut.