Dear coffee subscriber,
We are in the middle of “harvest vacation” in Norway and that means there is an abundance and variety of food and flavour available everywhere. A perfect fit for this month’s subscription theme as we send out three coffees that have widely different flavour profiles.
I highly encourage you to brew or taste these coffees side by side if you subscribe to two or more bags. The high contrast between the Ethiopian, El Salvadoran and Kenyan coffees makes it super easy to describe and discover the different flavours that these coffees have to offer.
Remember to also watch this month’s tasting video where I taste these coffees together with one of our baristas and roasters Daniel.
I hope you’ll like the coffees.
– Tim W
Echemo (1st and 4th bag)
Flavour notes: Floral, white tea & stone fruits
Producer: Khalid Shifa
Harvest: December 2022
Origin: Goma, Jimma, Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Heirloom from Coche forest
Organic certified by Debio NO-ØKO-01
Three years ago, Khalid built a new wet mill on his farm. He is now able to produce washed coffees whereas before we were only able to buy natural- and honey processed coffees from him. Interestingly I find his washed coffee to be much more expressive and flavourful with more of the classic citrus, stone fruit and floral flavours that is so common for the best Ethiopian coffees.
Having said that, this coffee has a slight less intense acidity compared to a lot of other washed Ethiopian coffees we have offered over the years. It is not a typical Yirgacheffe or Guji – like coffee, but that is probably because it is grown in a different area and are made up from different cultivars. The washed coffees from Echemo are very delicate and soft. I find it is like drinking a white tea with some nice notes of peach and florals.
Like many Ethiopian and Geisha coffees, this coffee can produce a bit more fines (dust) during grinding which means it might clog your paper filter when brewing filter style like V60, Kalita or similar. Hence you might experience much longer brew times. My recommendation is to not grind coarser but rather try to agitate the slurry less while brewing and let it take some more time to finish. High extractions of this coffee only makes this coffee more aromatic and sweet.
Los Pirineos – Bourbon (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes: Milk chocolate, hazelnuts & dried fruits
Producer: Diego Baraona
Harvest: February 2023
Origin: Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process: Semi-washed
Cultivar: Bourbon Elite
This semi-washed Bourbon coffee is sort of our “Brazilian style” coffee. It has a lot of the milk chocolaty notes you often find in the Bourbon coffees in Brazil, with a delicious sweet note of roasted nuts and dried fruits. I love drinking this coffee when I want something sweet and comforting or to use it in a tasting as a contrast to the fruity and floral coffees we often have on our menu from Kenya and Ethiopia.
Gilberto Baraona named his bourbon trees «Bourbon Elite» as these trees are very old and are considered to be among the original Bourbon trees that were planted in El Salvador many years ago. I am happy to know that his son Diego, loves these Bourbon coffees as much as I do and say he will focus on producing more of it along with his Pacamara, Sudan Rume and a few other cultivars he has identified to produce unique coffees on his farm
Gachatha (3rd or 6th bag)
Flavour notes: Blackcurrants, mango & hibiscus
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2022
Origin: Nyeri, Kenya
Process: Washed
Cultivar: SL28 & SL34, Ruiru 11 & Batian
The coffees from the Gachatha wet mill has consistently been among the best coffees I have tasted in Kenya over many years and because they produce such consistent high quality there is a big demand for these coffees. In my opinion the quality of the Kenyan coffees I tasted during my visit in February was really high and probably the best coffee year in recent times in Kenya. The coffees from Gachatha were no exceptions and I ended up buying two lots from Gachatha this year. Both lots were really outstanding in quality with complex ripe fruit flavours like mango and purple berries.
I have visited the Gachatha wet mill several times and been amazed by how much training the cooperative gives to their farmers. They have their own demonstratiopn plot at the wet mill where they can train their members in good agricultural practices and they also grow seedlings of both coffee trees and shade trees that are distributed to their members.
Although most members are still growing the traditional SL28 and SL34 cultivars, we know that they have been planting the new hybrid cultivars Ruiru 11 and a lot of Batian in the recent years. Still the coffee from Gachatha has the recognisable intense fruity flavours that I think of when I dream about delicious Kenyan coffees. This is the second lot we bought from Gachatha this year and I find it to taste less tart and with a more gentle and soft red fruit character compared to the lot we sent out in July.