What No. 4 Conjuncture tastes like, cup by cup

No. 4 Conjuncture tastes like orange, lemon and floral, the three notes on its own label, and that citrus brightness is most distinct in a pour-over. It comes from Othaya, Nyeri County, in Kenya, fully washed and dried on raised beds, at a high altitude that is common public knowledge as one of the reasons Kenyan coffee reads bright rather than heavy. The roaster does not declare a roast level for this one, so nothing here states one.

What growing at altitude does to the cup

Othaya sits at 1,700 to 1,890 meters, among the higher elevations used for coffee anywhere, grown here from SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11 and Batian varietals, all developed specifically for Kenyan growing conditions. Coffee grown at higher altitude generally develops more slowly and produces a denser, more acidic bean, which is widely understood among coffee buyers as part of why high-grown Kenyan coffee reads as bright and citrus-forward rather than heavy or chocolatey. Combined with a fully washed process, drying on raised beds so air moves under the coffee, that altitude is a large part of why orange, lemon and floral show up as clearly as they do here.

How it changes across three methods

Pour-over, brewed a touch coarser than usual, is the method the roaster itself points to for this coffee, and it is where the orange, lemon and floral notes stay most separate from each other. A drip machine keeps the citrus but rounds it off slightly. A French press adds body at the cost of losing some of the definition between the three notes, which some people prefer if they find pour-over Kenyan coffee too sharp.

Telling bright from sour

Kenyan coffee is acidic on purpose, and that is different from sour. Bright acidity reads as clean citrus and clarity in the cup. Sour usually means under-extraction, most often from too coarse a grind or water that ran through too fast. If your cup tastes sour rather than bright, the fix is a finer grind before anything else, since that is the most common cause and the easiest one to test.

Who it is for, and who it is not

If you like a cup that reads as citrus and floral rather than sweet or chocolatey, this is a direct yes, and it is the coffee to reach for over milk-based drinks where its brightness would otherwise get lost. If what you actually want is a heavier, low-acid cup, the opposite end of what this coffee is built for, No. 3 Position is closer to what you are picturing, and our Colombian vs Kenyan comparison lays out that kind of contrast directly.

Grind size across the three methods

For pour-over, go a touch coarser than your usual setting, since Kenyan coffee's high acidity comes through as sour rather than bright if the grind is too fine for the contact time. For drip, a standard medium grind works, the machine's fixed pour rate is more forgiving of small grind differences than a manual pour-over. For French press, go coarser still, closer to breadcrumbs, so the metal filter does not pass fine sediment into the cup, which would otherwise read as grit rather than the floral note this coffee is built around.

Storing it between brews

Keep the bag sealed at room temperature, away from direct sunlight and the stove. The floral and citrus notes in a coffee like this one fade faster once the bag has been opened repeatedly than the deeper notes in a heavier coffee would, so it is worth working through a bag within a few weeks rather than letting it sit half full for a month.

See the rest of the lineup on the full coffee page, or read about our sourcing on the why page.

Brew it as a pour-over first, a touch coarser than usual, that is where the citrus and floral notes are clearest.