Dear Coffee Subscribers,
We are leading towards the end of the summer and most of us are heading back to the everyday life. Late summer doesn’t only mean back to the old routines but also fresh coffees from Ethiopia. Although the heavy rains in the south west of Ethiopia during the harvest has delayed things quite a bit due to difficulties with drying the coffees, we still have received a few organic certified lots from Khalid Shifa and his farm Echemo in Goma, Jimma. That means we are sending out both a natural and a honey processed coffee that are tasting really sweet. I have also selected the SL28 variety from Finca Tamana as the third coffee because it makes a really interesting contrast to the two coffees from Echemo.
Echemo Natural 1 + bag
Flavour notes: Stone fruit, strawberries & floral
Producer: Khalid Shifa
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Goma, Jimma, Ethiopia
Process: Natural
Cultivar: Heirloom from Coche forest
Echemo is a 35 hectare coffee farm located at 2100 masl in Goma, Jimma (close to Agaro) owned and farmed by Khalid Shifa who inherited his farm from his Grandfather.
Khalid is mainly growing old cultivars that was planted by his grandfather many years ago. When establishing the farm, Khalid´s grandfather selected seeds from wild coffee trees from the the nearby Coche forest and the trees he planted are still producing well today. Most of the old trees are so tall that you are literally walking underneath a canopy of coffee trees while walking around the farm. Workers even have to climb the coffee trees in order to harvest the cherries.
Khalid is also actively planting native shade trees on his farm in order to preserve the natural fauna and protect the coffee trees from too much sun.
After we bought coffee from Khalid last year, he managed to build a new small wet mill where he will be fermenting and washing coffee. He is also producing Natural and honey processed coffees on his farm and obtained his organic certification in 2019 for these coffees.
Although Khalid has been planting some of the new cultivars from the Jimma Agricultural Research Center in the recent years, the majority of his coffee is still from the old forest «wild coffee trees» that his grandfather planted. I believe that these old cultivars are the reason why Khalid’s coffee is very different from the coffees you will find in the nearby areas. It is not the typical “in your face” floral and fruity coffee like you might expect from an Ethiopian coffee. Instead it has a great rich mouthfeel with a sweet honey like flavour, sometimes with notes of baking spice and mint in the aftertaste. Still you will find a pleasant fruity and floral character, but much more subtle than your typical Ethiopian coffee.
This coffee is organic certified by Debio NO-ØKO-01
The Natural processed coffee is a but more fruity and strawberry like compared to the honey processed coffee.
Echemo Honey 2 + bags
Flavour notes: Stone fruit, & floral honey
Producer: Khalid Shifa
Harvest: December 2019
Origin: Goma, Jimma, Ethiopia
Process: Honey
Cultivar: Heirloom from Coche forest
As this coffee was de-pulped before it was dried on raised beds, it has a bit cleaner character than the Natural processed coffee. Look for more honey like flavours, floral notes but still with the stone fruit acidity and a sweet lingering finish.
This coffee is organic certified by Debio NO-ØKO-01
Finca Tamana SL28 3 + bags
Flavour notes: Floral, herbal & red berries
Producer: Elias Roa
Harvest: July – August 2019
Origin: El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Process: Washed
Cultivar: SL28
I planted these SL28 seeds with Elias in 2013 and the trees were planted in the field in early 2014. Since then we have been waiting to get this coffee in our shop. In 2017 we got 24 kilos, and in the last years we have gotten an increasing amount of this coffee, but it is still not a lot. I wanted to send this one out to our 3 bag subscribers as I think it is a special coffee that is at the moment some of the best that Finca Tamana has to offer along with the Bourbon that we sent out earlier this year.
The SL28 at Finca Tamana has some of the classic SL28 flavours but tastes very different from the Kenyan SL28 coffees. It has a bigger body, lower acidity and an interesting spicy and sweet note that makes it really different from the brighter and more intense Kenyan grown SL28.
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.
Cheers,
Tim & Co