Connect Coffee Museum, Karen, Nairobi. 2026.
Sometimes I hold a mental knife, attempting to take a stab at weaving words that boast creative flare and impersonality. And often I fail… dismally!
Because how dare I make something as personal as coffee (at least to me), an impersonal affair especially when words are involved?
For starters, anyone that knows me personally will tell you (if you ask), about my love for coffee. From a kitchen counter brim with assortments of French presses of different sizes (to which I’d argue there are three); a Chemex flask and remnants of a broken one, a cupboard with all sorts of coffee beans. (Single origin please!, because there isn’t a better tasting brew).
So when I found myself in the leafy suburb of Karen, for a date with my better half, you couldn’t have convinced the little kid who inhabits my mind that a whole coffee museum exists. Not only that, but it is a historic haven housing heritage, artistry, food, breathable air sourced on sight; all the while serving as a tapestry with threads connecting the rich meandering past and present of coffee on the continent and the entire planet. I had to pinch myself!
My jaws? I had to pick up from the grounds, that are covered in aggregate; setting the scene from the parking bay on what’s to unfold. A walking distance to the main building, each step taken rolls one closer to the museum which coils into sight, carefully revealing the rustically manicured landscape that utilise individual yet cohesive design elements. So understand, by the time you reach the service consultants at the enchanting entryway, you are either high on the anticipation of the coffee you’re yet to taste, or drenched from soaking in all those majestic views. You haven’t even set a foot inside the museum.
Because there is so much detail in this one experience, I will have to do a part two of this from the doorway. I hope you will endure, a little while longer for me to find the words and images that unravel that experience once more.
In borrowing from the 90’s terroriser of Sarah Connor, “I’ll be back!”
Love & Light
Perfekto!