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Nairobi's coffee cafe culture is growing fast, with more specialty shops opening in Lavington, Kilimani, and Westlands, while Kenya still exports 95 percent of the coffee it produces and consumes just 5 percent at home. Missionaries brought the plant from Brazil in 1893, colonial rules reserved commercial cultivation for white settlers, and Dormans became Kenya's first coffee roaster in 1950, while Artcaffe, Java House, and Connect Coffee have also shaped the cafe scene. Domestic use rose 19 percent from 1,722 metric tons in the 2021/22 year to 2,051 metric tons in 2022/23, and the number of coffee shops increased from 231 in 2019 to 791 in 2023. Spring Valley Coffee now has eight cafes across Nairobi and recently opened one in London, farms such as Karunguru Coffee Estate and Fairview Coffee Estate in Kiambu offer tours, and the island of Lamu also has local cafes. Younger customers try pour-overs and cold brew and visit cafes to meet, even as housing has replaced some coffee land around Nairobi, Thika, Kiambu, and Nyeri.
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