Gloria - Sakami
THE TASTE OF ONE'S COFFEE
Gloria gave up her career as a beauty expert, came back to her hometown and decided to dedicate her life solely to coffee. She had several goals: to offer great quality coffee, bring about prosperity in the region, nourish an abundant agroforestry system and change certain paradigms. Being that the North Rift Valley (The Bread Basket) is, since colonial times, a region recognized mainly for maize, Gloria also wanted to make the region recognized for coffee.
The coffee growing conditions –the wind, the altitude, and the land– are near perfect. So when she and her husband Jarmo bought their farm in Trans Nzoia County, they were pleasantly surprised to discover they stood on one of the oldest coffee estates in the region. They named their coffee estate Sakami, inspired by their daughters' names: Sheila, Saar, and Nakami.

Today, Sakami Ranches Ltd. is a trademark. Coffee grows intermingled with macadamia, avocado, dairy, and vegetables. Her coffee is reaching exciting corners of the world, and with it, the reputation of Kenya and women in coffee positively spread. She works very closely with the farmers, encouraging them to grow their own trees and taste their coffee. "Most farmers in the region didn't even know how their own coffee tasted," says Gloria, "and that's one of the first things I did when we started working together."
Besides managing the estates, she's keeping herself busy these days planning, with the support of the government, a nursery for small children near her estate to support single working moms.