Echemo – Certified Organic

A few 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.

Last November 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.  

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.