Nairobi java house promotes good coffees

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Not long ago, it was impossible to get a really good cup of coffee in Kenya, the source of the highly prized AA arabica featured on the menu boards of gourmet coffee shops around the world.

But today the machines that hiss and splutter in Nairobi Java House produce frothy cappuccinos, lattes and expressos for hip young customers in a country that's the world's third-largest tea producer and a bastion of tea drinkers since British colonial times.

Java House executive chairman Kevin Ashley felt the market was ripe: "Kenyans just needed a good place to meet and have a good cup of coffee and get on with their day."

In Kenya, coffee -- a major export along with tea -- is mostly seen as a pricey commodity for foreigners. Unlike neighboring Ethiopia, where half the national output is consumed at home, Kenya exports all but 1 percent of its coffee.

Moreover, with the Kenyan economy in its worst shape since the country won independence from Britain in 1963, developing a domestic market for speciality coffee seemed something of a long shot.

Still, three years after opening their first coffee house in a 1960s-era shopping arcade, Ashley, three other Americans and a Kenyan who founded the company are surprised by their success.

"It took off a lot more than we thought it would," Ashley said of Java House, which now has three cafes in Nairobi and one at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Monthly sales of the branded coffee, both brewed and packaged, amount to $19,230.

To sell good coffee to Kenyans, all you need is promotion, Ashley said, although Java House advertising seems limited to word-of-mouth and attractive T-shirts.

The under-35s riding the crest of Kenya's own dot.com and mobile phone phenomenon make up the target client base; their monthly salaries average around $256.

"These are the people who actually want to spend their money on a quality product when they do spend their money," he said. "They also want to do something that differentiates them from the past tea-drinking generation," Ashley said.

He and his partners got involved in the coffee business when most of their aircraft charter business shifted to delivering relief food, supplies and aid workers to neighboring southern Sudan. They wanted to retain their base in Nairobi.

So they went to California to learn about coffee roasting, then returned and sank an initial $255,000 into the first coffee house in Adams Arcade.

They now plan to open Java Houses at regional airports across Kenya as well as in the new, brightly lit plaza-like gas stations that are mushrooming across the country.

In partnership with Kenyan oil company Kobil, they plan to expand next year into neighboring Tanzania and Uganda.

Stephen Nkanata, managing director of the government-run Tea Board of Kenya, doubts whether the East African nation of 30 million will easily switch their allegiance to coffee.

"Coffee is out of the reach of many Kenyans; few can afford it," he said, adding that the country's yearly per capita tea consumption stands at 1 pound.

But Ester Nyamai, a 23-year-old Kenya Airways flight attendant, is a Java House regular. She says Kenyans would get to like their coffee if only they knew about it.

"You see, when you're young, you want to be an adventurer, so you try coffee, you like it and you want to stick to it," she said.

Michael Otieno, public relations manager for the Coffee Board of Kenya, said some years ago the government board opened some cafes to promote Kenyan coffee; but they were closed when they kept losing money.

Ashley said Java House can turn a profit, even when paying the going price of $124 for a 50 kilogram bag of AA coffee at the weekly Nairobi auction.

"We're proud of one thing: we sell our standard cup of coffee for 50 (Kenya shillings or 64 cents," he said, about half the price at Nairobi's major hotels.

A medium latte costs $1.54, a cappucino of the same size is $1.28 and a single espresso is 90 cents.