Dear coffee subscriber,
This month I have selected coffees which are all floral, but in slightly different ways.
From the intense jasmine like florality in the Ethiopian coffee from Khalid Shifa to more subtle floral notes in the Central-American Geisha coffees we are sending out. I love drinking floral coffees, especially in the morning as sometimes I find it easier to pick up the delicate floral notes when my palate is fresh and ready for a new day. Coffees with floral flavour notes are probably the most sought after coffees among coffee professionals and for good reason. I believe it is one of the most difficult attribute to come across in coffees, especially outside of Ethiopia. We know that Geisha is one of very few cultivars outside of Ethiopia that can taste like the very best Ethiopian floral coffees. But just because a farmer has Geisha cultivars, does not automatically mean that the coffee will taste floral. Geisha needs shade, cool climate, little wind and good soils in order to thrive. If you plant them in lower altitudes they can become quite generic and nutty in flavour, but if grown in the right place they become floral, delicate, sweet and fragrant.
I hope you will enjoy this month’s coffees and don’t be afraid to play around with brewing methods when you brew these coffees. I personally enjoy drinking these after making them with our standard Aeropress recipe.
Echemo (1st & 4th bag)
Flavour notes
Floral, white tea & stone fruits
Producer
Khalid Shifa
Harvest
December 2023
Origin
Goma, Jimma, Ethiopia
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Heirloom from Coche forest
Organic certified by Debio NO-ØKO-01
Some 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, yet it is more delicate and clean.
In November 2023 I was finally able to go and visit Khalid at the start of his harvest. The goal was to go through his production steps to see if we could agree upon a protocol for him to follow in order to try to elevate the quality of his coffees. As usual there were many small details that could be improved, some with small and others with major impact on the final quality. A few of the major ones included separation of every daily picking, keeping each daily lot stored in air tight grain pro bags after drying. Drying the coffees under shade nets, keeping better control of the fermentation and slightly changing the process were also part of what we changed and improved. This meant that I was able to evaluate around 20 samples, each representing a daily picking, instead of just 2-3 samples like previous years where the coffees had been bulked together. By doing this we were able to remove the lower qualities from the higher quality lots and in combination with better processing and drying practices the coffees really cleaned up and became more expressive. We would of course not be able to change all this in such short time had it not been for the wonderful help and follow up done by Fantanesh Keleme and the whole team at Belco in Ethiopia, who made sure Khalid understood and followed the protocols for all the coffees he produced for us.
We also milled the coffees in a smaller dry-mill this year where we were able to vacuum pack the coffees from Ethiopia for the first time. This helps preserve the coffees flavour and freshness for a much longer time.
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. It is very different to the typical Yirgacheffe or Guji coffees from the south of Ethiopia, most likely because it is grown in a different area and is from different cultivars.
Finca El Vikingo (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes
Herbal, floral & citrus
Producer
Jobneel Caceres Dios
Harvest
May 2024
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 different rare cultivars like Geisha. This year is the third year he was able to produce Geisha coffee from this new farm and the quality is, as expected, better than his first two harvests. I find this harvest to be more floral and intense compared to the previous years. Although it is not as expressive as the Geisha coffees we buy from the Caballero family further south in Honduras, this is still a delicious coffee with delicate and subtle floral and citric flavours. This particular lot was also processed with a slightly different protocol than previous years. We asked Jobneel to let the coffee cherries rest over night after picking them and to de-pulp the cherries in the following morning after they were picked instead of the same afternoon. This means the coffee cherries will start a slight fermentation prior to being de-pulped and it also means the parchment coffee is dry-fermented in a tank for 24 hours before washing. This has added a more intense fruity character to the coffee without it being overly fermented in any ways. 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 Geisha (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes
Milk chocolate, floral & tangerine
Producer
Diego Baraona
Harvest
February 2024
Origin
Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Geisha
Diego’s father Gilberto started planting Geisha from a handful of seeds many years ago. In fact he started with just a few trees in his garden outside his house in San Salvador before transferring the trees and planting more on his farm. This was because back then it was really hard to come across good Geisha seeds and Gilberto wanted to personally guard his trees to make sure they grew up well. Since then we have been waiting patiently for the trees to produce enough of the good quality to be able to offer this coffee in our selections. I have already tasted this coffee for a few years now and every year it has had a very distinct and unique orange and tangerine flavour that reminds me of eating orange flavoured milk chocolate. It is quite different from the famous Geishas you can get from Panama that tends to be more delicate with a lighter body and a more floral cup profile. This is a completely different style of Geisha with chocolaty profile with notes of tangerine and orange blossom.