Twenty shillings a debe.

Alex Muturi grew up in Kamunyu village in Gatundu, Kiambu County, on the slopes that feed some of Kenya’s most celebrated coffee. His family were members of the Muhara Farmers Cooperative Society and delivered their own cherry to its Magomano factory.

Then prices collapsed. Across the region, coffee trees were uprooted or cut down. To get by, the family went to work on the large estates nearby, picking coffee for wages: twenty shillings for every debe, a 20-kilogram tin of hand-picked cherry. Alex started picking at twelve, alongside his mother and older brother. He missed long stretches of secondary school because the fees weren’t there.

In 2011 he came to the United States and settled with his family in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

The $2.50 cup

Early one morning, at a gas station in Lititz, Alex paid $2.50 for an ordinary cup of coffee. It was more than his family used to earn for a full day of picking.

He couldn’t unsee it. The people who create coffee’s value stand furthest from it. So he set out to work the trade side himself, the side built to keep farm families out.

Marcus & Beams today

Marcus & Beams is named for our family. In Kenya, our sister company Vortex Hive Ltd holds a coffee dealer license and a seat at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange, and handles sourcing and export from Gatundu. In the US, Marcus & Beams International LLC imports the coffee and supplies specialty roasters directly.

Alex’s brother, John Muturi, runs the Kenya side full-time, cupping and buying at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.

Every lot we sell is traceable, single-origin, and bought by people who know exactly what a debe of cherry is worth.

Wega uumaga na mũciĩ

There’s a Kikuyu saying, Wega uumaga na mũciĩ: goodness begins at home. That’s why Alex founded the Hive Futures Foundation, which pays Senior School fees in full for bright students from Kenya’s farming communities. Marcus & Beams gives 10¢ from every kilo of coffee we sell to the Foundation.

How we give back →