In this month’s episode of Coffee Subscription Tasting with Friends, I am joined by Caroline Rødvik, one of our baristas who has been working with us for the last 6 years (since 2013) and together we taste some really exciting summer coffees we have in store for you this month. First, we taste 2 varieties from Tatmara Coffee Plantation, our first natural processed coffee since 2014 and our first natural processed coffee from Ethiopia since 2009 (yes, a whole decade ago). We also taste a coffee from the Kiawamururu wet mill in Nyeri, Kenya, which goes out to our 2-bag subscribers. All fresh and fruity coffees for the hot summer.
Here are some of the things we discuss:
– What is a natural processed coffee?
– Why I am not usually a fan of natural coffees
– Why these coffees are worth buying
– More about the Tatmara Coffee Plantation
– What’s the soil, altitude and climate like in Ethiopia?
And here is the link to our cold coffee brewing guide which we mention in the video – great to try with our sweet and fruity coffees below.
Filter & Espresso
Tatmara C.P. Natural 74110, Kaffa, Ethiopia 1 bag
Producer: Negussie Tadesse
Harvest: December 2018
Origin: Dakiti, Kaffa, Ethiopia
Cultivar: 74110
Process: Natural
Flavour notes: Peach, strawberries & floral
I am very excited to announce our first coffee from a single producer in Ethiopia since the famous Olke Birre coffee we had a few years ago. What is different now is that this time the coffee is from a different area and also from a bigger farm and hopefully we will be able to buy coffee from Negussie in the many years to come. Ethiopia opened up for smaller farmers to sell coffee directly to Roasters last year so I immediately contacted the French import company Belco, to see if they could help me get in touch with some farmers I could possibly start working with and buy coffee from. After a week of traveling in the areas of Jimma and Kaffa there were a few farms that stood out for me and one of them was the Tatmara Coffee Plantation and farmer Negussie Tadesse. Negussie was already separating his coffees by variety but was only producing natural processed coffees due to not having infrastructure to wash coffees yet. He had a very open mind and wanted to work with quality so I decided to at least get started by buying some natural processed coffees and then see if we can support him in building a wet mill for washing coffees in the future. We agreed upon a protocol on how to produce 80 bags of high quality natural processed coffees for us (this is not so easy as it seems) and I was surprised on how good they turned out. Normally I am not the biggest fan of natural processed coffees as they are difficult to produce well and often have taints of over ripe fruit due to uncontrolled fermentation within each coffee cherry during drying and also a peanutty flavour from uneven ripeness of the cherries. Negussie made sure he only dried the coffees in really thin layers and also only with the fully ripe cherries for us and the results are really tasty. In fact I liked them so much that we might just continue focusing on buying his naturals. We will see…
For me these coffees still have hints of flavours from fermentation but they are pleasant like fresh peach, fresh ripe strawberry and floral. As the coffee cools it does not turn to an unpleasant over ripe fruity note like a lot of naturals in the market, but it keeps its vibrancy and cleanliness. It makes these coffees really great for making iced coffee as well.
We have separated and bought two different cultivars from this farm. The first one we are launching is the 74110 cultivar. Both cultivars are selections made by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center and although they have very similar qualities, there are some subtle nuances in the flavour profile. Below you will see all our 3 bag subscribers will also be receiving the 74112 cultivar so they can compare.
Kiawamururu, Nyeri, Kenya 2 bags
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2018
Origin: Nyeri, Kenya
Cultivar: SL28, SL23, Ruiru 11 & Batian
Process: Washed
Flavour notes: Raspberries, red apples & rose hips
I am so glad to have some coffee from Kiawamururu again. Kiawamururu was one of the first wet mills I ever visited in Kenya over 10 years ago and also one of the first Kenyan coffees we bought direct from a cooperative in Kenya back in the days. I really love the delicate sweet fruity notes in this coffee and was very pleased to see how well the coffee was processed during my visit in December 2018.
Daniel, the factory / wet mill manager, was telling me that although in general in Kenya there was a lot of problems with coffee berry disease and other coffee diseases during the 2018 crop year, the quality of the cherries delivered to the Kiawamururu wet mill was of better quality than in the 2017 crop.
All I can say is that this year’s crop tasted at least as good as last years crop which shows that the processing and drying is very consistent at this wet mill.
Tatmara C.P. Natural 74112, Kaffa, Ethiopia 3 bags
Producer: Negussie Tadesse
Harvest: December 2018
Origin: Dakiti, Kaffa, Ethiopia
Cultivar: 74112
Process: Natural
Flavour notes: Plums, strawberries & citrus
This is the 74112 cultivar of the natural-processed Tatmara coffee. See notes above for more info.
Cheers,
Tim