Connect Coffee Roasters

Connect Coffee Roasters runs its own seed to cup program with Kenyan smallholder farmers, a partnership with the Coffee Research Foundation, and a standing commitment to give five percent of every cup sold back to farmer welfare, all backed by AA grade green and roasted beans cupping at 85 points or above. It has grown from a single roastery into five branches across Nairobi and one in Kisumu, and it ranks among the city's best specialty coffee, ahead of most of the competition on quality alone.

The Chiromo branch, inside the RiverFront Building on Riverside Drive, keeps things minimal and calm, meeting pods for people working through a laptop, a rooftop terrace looking out over the Nairobi skyline, and soft piano playing under the hum of conversation. A small, deliberate touch: coffee gets served in pink cups to female customers, the kind of detail regulars notice and mention.