Privam – Kenya

About the Coffee

Privam Estate is a small, family-run farm on the lower slopes of Mount Kenya in Embu County. Rita and Patrick Mukundi lead the operation, supported by extended family. Pilot founder and green buyer Andy Wilkin met the Mukundi siblings in 2023 through mutual relationships, and after sharing similar values around family and long-term partnerships, Pilot purchased a quarter of their harvest outright. Rita and Patrick are Pilot's first direct trade partners in East Africa.

The farm uses a polyculture system, growing macadamia trees alongside SL-28, SL-34, and Batian coffee varieties. The taller macadamia trees shade the smaller coffee plants, slowing their development and supporting soil health. Embu County sits at high altitude near Mount Kenya, which brings substantial rainfall and cooler temperatures. Those growing conditions, combined with two harvest seasons per year, make this one of the more fertile and consistent farming regions in Kenya.

2025 marks Pilot's third year sourcing from Privam, and the relationship has grown from that first shared cupping table in 2023. Working directly with Rita and Patrick means Pilot can follow the coffee closely from harvest through processing, and reinvest back into a farm they know personally.

About Pilot

Andy Wilkin and Jessie Holmes opened Te Aro Roasted in Toronto's Leslieville neighbourhood in May 2009. Andy, a newly certified Q Grader at the time, modeled the cafe on the specialty coffee shops he knew from his hometown of Te Aro in Wellington, New Zealand. The space started as a cafe and micro-roastery out of a former car garage. By 2013, the name Pilot Coffee Roasters was introduced and roasting moved to a larger facility on Wagstaff Drive.

Pilot's sourcing approach centers on long-term producer relationships. The Privam partnership is a good example of how they work: Andy met Rita and Patrick directly, found a shared outlook, and committed to buying from them year after year rather than rotating in new suppliers. That consistency is what they're after on both sides of the relationship.