Spring Valley in Camden Passage

AN award-winning Camden Passage coffee shop brings Kenyan coffee culture to Angel while keeping the value with growers and roasters back at home.

What was a café and small roastery in the Nairobi neighbourhood it is named after, Spring Valley was founded in 2009 and bought by one of its regulars Ritesh Doshi after the previous owners decided to sell it in 2018. It now has 10 locations across the Kenyan capital and one in Camden Passage, its only international branch, which opened in June last year. It won Best New Coffee Shop at the London Coffee Festival Award in May.

Gemma Herd, general manager of the London café, says although Kenyan coffee is drunk all over the city, Spring Valley is one of a few cafés in the capital whose coffee is roasted at origin and supply chain structured to keep money and jobs in Kenya.

“I would say the biggest thing is maintaining the value at origin,” she told the Tribune. “For example, our head roaster Mohammed Matamu doesn’t speak much English or any English at all, he speaks Swahili. He’s one of the top roasters in Africa, if not beyond that. The company translated all the roastery courses for him.”

“What we really focus on is not telling the sad story of ‘the poor farmers in Kenya’,” she said.

“They’re actually just incredible people who are growing incredible things and we’re just getting them into a different market.”

Mr Doshi added: “For many years, roasting specialty coffee at origin wasn’t done in Kenya.

“Green beans were largely exported to Europe to be roasted meaning Kenyans were producing an exceptional product but had limited access to their own coffee. When I acquired Spring Valley I was determined to change that.”

He added that employment is another important aspect of keeping the company’s value in Kenya. The B Corp has around 130 employees, just six of whom are in London.

“Kenya has a significant youth unemployment challenge,” he said.

“Because we keep the entire process at origin from cultivation and processing through to roasting and packaging we create opportunities across the value chain.”

Ms Herd added that they had been made to feel welcome by competitors along the little street in Angel.

“There’s 14 other coffee machines on the passage and yet we’ve never been made to feel as if we’re stepping on toes,” she said.