Dear coffee subscriber,
Welcome to a new coffee year and also welcome to all new subscribers.
We have many things to look forward to in 2024 and I promise we will work hard to make sure you will get more unique and delicious coffees through our subscription program in the coming year. We recently released a podcast (listen here) where our wholesale manager Ben and I sum up the coffee year of 2023 but also talk about what we are looking forward to in 2024. One of the projects we are very excited about is our collaborations with Khalid Shifa in Ethiopia. I visited his farm in November and we managed to make very positive changes to how he processes, separate and mill the coffees we buy from him. It means we will be getting some stellar coffees from his farm this summer. While we are waiting for those coffees, we can enjoy the coffees from Khalid’s last harvest. The coffee from Echemo is a very delicate and sweet coffee with subtle floral and stone fruit flavour notes. It is not the typical jasmine-like floral notes you would expect from a typical south-Ethiopian coffee or the Panamanian Geisha coffees. I actually find it more to taste like coffee flowers.
There are so many other flowers you can taste in the coffee world and that is why I thought it would be fun to include three other floral coffees we have in stock at the moment. The Sudan Rume and Harar from Los Pirineos will be sendt exclusively to our subscribers and the Geisha from El Vikingo is also limited stock as it is only the second harvest from these trees and the farm is still not producing to it’s full capacity.
I hope you will enjoy this month’s floral coffees and encourage you to taste them side by side if you have the opportunity to do so.
Echemo (1st & 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, probably because it is grown in a different area and is 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 and we have found it pretty easy to extract too.
Finca El Vikingo (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes
Floral, honey & citrus
Producer
Jobneel Caceres Dios
Harvest
May 2023
Origin
El Sauce, Santa Barbara, Honduras
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Geisha
A few years ago Jobneel Caceres Dios bought a small piece of land in an area not too far away from his first farm Finca Nacimiento that should be well known among our followers. He wanted to plant more coffee and also to plant some rare cultivars like Geisha.
This year is the second year he was able to produce Geisha coffee from this new farm and the quality is as expected much better than his first harvest in 2022. I find this harvest to be more floral and intense compared to the first harvest. Although it is not as expressive as the Geisha coffees from the Caballero family that we sent out in December, this is still a delicious coffee with delicate and subtle floral and citric flavours. From experience the quality will normally improve when the trees grow older so we believe this coffee will become better and better in the years to come.
Los Pirineos Ethiopian Harar (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes
Stewed stone fruits & apples
Producer
Diego Baraona
Harvest
February 2023
Origin
Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process
Honey
Cultivar
Ethiopian Harar
These seeds were planted by Gilberto Baraona (Diego’s father who passed away in 2020) who managed to get some seeds that came from Harar in Ethiopia. The first trees were planted in their cultivar garden, but the trees performed really well both in yield and quality so Gilberto decided to plant more. Although it does not taste like a typical floral Ethiopian coffee, there is still a lot of fruity flavours in this coffee.
This lot was honey processed which means the cherries were de-pulped and the parchment coffee was dried with the sticky mucilage left on, on raised beds under shade. This gives a mild fermented character to the coffee which results is a coffee with intense flavours of stewed fruit like you get in a really good crumble.
Los Pirineos Sudan Rumé (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes
Chocolate, tangerine & spices
Producer
Diego Baraona
Harvest
February 2023
Origin
Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process
Semi-washed
Cultivar
Sudan Rumé
Sudan Rumé is a rare cultivar that has been used to win the World Barista Championship by Sasa Sestic. I have tasted this cultivar a few times from Los Pirineos and it has consistently been one of the top quality coffees from this farm. In fact it is Diego’s personal favourite.
Although the coffee has a chocolaty flavour profile like most coffees from Los Pirineos, it still has a distinct floral, spicy and tangerine like flavour with hints of citrus peel and herbs. I hope you will find it as interesting as I do.