Happy new year dear friends, we hope you all have had a wonderful holiday with lots of food and drinks, and that you are entering this new year well rested. Here in Oslo we have finally the city is slowly getting covered in snow which gives a perfect opportunity to snuggle up inside with a good book and some freshly brewed coffee.
Talking about coffee; This month I have picked out five different coffees for you. Two of them comes from the producer Mohammed Lalo in Ethiopia, two from the village Sibactel in Tenejapa, Chiapas, Mexico and the last one is a refreshing fruit bomb from the Karinga washing station in Kiambu, Kenya.
Fahem 74110 1 + bag filter
Flavour notes: Floral, sweet citrus & stone fruit
Producer: Mohammed Lalo
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Atnago, Limmu Seka, Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Cultivar: 74110
In an attempt to find a farmers we could start working more closely with in Ethiopia, I went on a trip in December 2018 to visit a handfull of farms in the western part of the country. Out of those visits we ended up buying from three different farms where Fahem is the biggest one of them.
This is the second year we buy coffee from Fahem and hopefully we will be able to visit the farm more often in the future years in order to see how we can help improve the quality of the coffees we buy from this farm just like we do in Central-America and Colombia
While visiting the farm I was shown around by Hayatudin Jamal who works for Fahem and Mohammed Lalo. I was quite impressed with the infrastructure on the farm and also how they had planted different coffee cultivars separate from each other and kept the natural forest canopy over the coffee trees. The wet mill had a huge capacity with two different processing lines and two different types of processing machines. They were also drying the coffees on raised beds but unfortunately in most of the cases they would pick and mix the different cultivars together. I therefore asked Hayatudin if they were willing to separate the different cultivars and also if they could follow my suggested processing and drying protocol to see if we could improve the quality even further. Hayatudin offered to produce 60 bags of coffee for me according to my requests but I would of course have to commit to buying those 60 bags.
We managed to produce four different lots in total, two natural processed and two washed coffees, all separated by cultivars. Unfortunately we bumped in to some challenges with shipping and logistics due to Covid 19, but at least we managed to get most of the coffees to Norway in good condition. I really loved how the washed coffees turned out and think they are quite different from the typical coffees you will find further south in Ethiopia, like near Yirgacheffe.
This cultivar named 74110 is referring to a selection made by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center in 1974 number 110. It is one of several cultivars grown at Fahem and this particular lot is showing a little more of the citric notes than the second cultivar we are sending out this month.
Karinga 2 + 5 bags filter
Flavour notes: Floral, blackberries & rose hips
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Kiambu, Kenya
Process: Washed
Cultivar: SL28 & SL34
This coffee is grown at around 1900 masl in Kiambu where the climate is cool and makes the coffee ripen slower and develop more flavour, sweetness and acidity. Most of the members who sell their coffee cherries to this wet mill grow mainly the SL28 cultivar and have not been planting the hybrids Batian and Ruiru 11. The SL28 cultivar is famous for it’s fruity flavour and high quality. It also has less problems with leaf rust at this altitude and produces well and that is why the farmers have continued to grow this cultivar. For me this coffee was a standout while I was buying coffees in Kenya for the last two years and this year it was also super intense and fruity with a bit more emphasis on rose hip and floral aromas. It is a very complex coffee that displays layers of flavour as it cools, so make sure you enjoy this coffee at various temperatures.
Sibactel & Cafeólogo 3 bags filter
Flavour notes: Cocoa nibs & strawberries
Producer: Beneficio Comunitario Sibactel & Cafeólogo
Harvest: April 2019
Origin: Tenejapa, Chiapas, Mexico
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Bourbon & Caturra
Cafeólogo is a company started by our friend Jesus Salazar in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico.
They have been working closely with farmers in Chiapas for several years and helped them improve the quality of heir coffees by giving training and assisting with processing and drying coffees. In Sibactel, Tenejapa, they have been buying coffees from a group of Mayan farmers who are producing some exceptional coffees. After many years of good relations with the farmers in the area Jesus was able to get a facility in Sibactel and has helped build a community mill where they are now working with 65 farmers.
This particular coffee is from this community mill and is therefore a mix of coffee from several smallholder farmers near Sibactel. All of the farms I have visited that Jesus and his team are working with are growing coffee without any use of pesticides and mineral fertilisers and are also growing other crops like maize and plantain among the coffee trees. They all grow Bourbon and Caturra cultivars which means the coffee has a nice rich and sweet character with notes of cocoa nibs and strawberries.
I first started buying these coffees when I was looking for coffees for restaurant Noma’s pop up in Tulum, Mexico. I spent a lot of time tasting a lot of different coffees from various regions in Mexico but none could match the quality of the coffees that Jesus was delivering. That is why we selected these coffees to be served at Noma’s pop up and we have been buying small quantities of these coffees ever since.
Hear Jesus talk more about their journey here.
Fahem 74148 4 bags filter
Flavour notes: Floral, tropical fruits & citrus
Producer: Mohammed Lalo
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Atnago, Limmu Seka, Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Cultivar: 74148
This cultivar named 74148 is referring to a selection made by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center in 1974 number 148. It is one of several cultivars grown at Fahem and this particular lot is has more of a tropical fruit note than the 74110 described above.
Petrona Perez 6 bags filter
Flavour notes: Cocoa nibs, winey & black currant
Producer: Petrona Perez
Harvest: April 2019
Origin: Tenejapa, Chiapas, Mexico
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Bourbon & Caturra
Petrona Perez is a lady in her 30s who is producing a small quantity of coffee in Sibactel, in a small indigenous community in Tenejapa, Chiapas Mexico. (see description above for more info)
She is for some reason unknown to Jesus Salazar and his team at Cafeólogo, producing the very best coffees in the area and she has been doing so consistently for several years. Despite that her land is next to other farms that are growing the same cultivars and are seemingly using the same techniques and agricultural practices as Petrona, her coffees have been a stand out to me every year ever since I started buying coffees from the area.
This particular coffee was one of my top 3 favourites in 2020. I simply can’t resist coffees that have this kind of flavour profile. I taste layers of cocoa nibs, and chocolate and fruit that reminds me of purple berries like black currant, aronia and blackberries with a winey acidity and great structure. An absolute stunning coffee in my opinion.
Fahem 74110 1 + bag espresso
Flavour notes: Floral, sweet citrus & stone fruit
Producer: Mohammed Lalo
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Atnago, Limmu Seka, Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Cultivar: 74110
Karinga 2 + 5 bags espresso
Flavour notes: Floral, blackberries & rose hips
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Kiambu, Kenya
Process: Washed
Cultivar: SL28 & SL34
Petrona Perez 3 + 6 bags espresso
Flavour notes: Cocoa nibs & strawberries
Producer: Beneficio Comunitario Sibactel & Cafeólogo
Harvest: April 2019
Origin: Tenejapa, Chiapas, Mexico
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Bourbon & Caturra
Fahem 74148 4 bags espresso
Flavour notes: Floral, tropical fruits & citrus
Producer: Mohammed Lalo
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Atnago, Limmu Seka, Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Cultivar: 74148
Thanks for reading and as always, we hope you enjoy the coffees and learning from our monthly videos. If you need some brewing tips, visit our website.
Hope you will enjoy the coffees
Tim Wendelboe