I have met a lot of people in the coffee industry over the years. Many of the starting businesses were still in their baby shoes trying to take their first steps while the slightly more established ones were looking to cement their own place in the highly dynamic specialty coffee industry. However, I’ve rarely met anyone who discovered specialty coffee and within 2-3 years went on to win national competitions. Enter Charity Cheung and her parnter Kevin David.
This fascinating couple from Hong Kong and France, respectively, had a long distance relationship for many years before Charity moved to Champagne in France where they now live and work together. Though she had discovered specialty coffee while still a student in Maastricht, it wasn’t until she visited the Paris Café Festival in 2019 where she had her first cupping and tasted her first Geisha.
What happened next can only be described as a whirlwind tour de force that saw her and Kevin buy a small Diedrich roaster, sell their beans to friends and family, found Moklair and go on to compete and win in the French nationals.
Last week, I invited Charity to be my first-ever guest on the brand new Coffeevine podcast ‘Heard it on The Coffeevine’, which is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. I’d love it if you gave it a listen.
About a year ago, Charity first reached out to me to inquire about a possible Coffeevine feature but at the time, we didn’t like the coffees that were submitted for our cupping and we suggested we should try this again in 2023. I can safely say that this time round, the coffees that Moklair proposed for the March 2023 Coffeevine box were absolutely spectacular and after some debating, our team eventually chose the crisp and sparkling washed Kenyan coffee from Muthuaini AB.
The name means ‘place destroyed by ants’ in Kukuyu and references the struggles that coffee farmers in the Kyeri District of Kenya have had with the forces of nature in the past. However, this coffee is also an outstanding representation of the kind of Kenyan coffees that we love. Clean, well-balanced and a joy to drink.
Keen to get your hands on our outstanding selection for March? Make sure to visit our shop and choose your ideal Coffeevine box before 15.03. – Ships globally on 20.03
