Description
Our first new crop Ethiopian of the season! A super clean, balanced, delicate and sweet cup you won’t want to miss. Washed Ethiopians are known for their delicate and floral profile at lighter roasts and this lot is a wonderful example. Shows hints of peach, floral and citric crispness upfront, balancing with a juicy body and nutty/chocolate undertones. Cups like this really showcase the heirloom strains that makes Ethiopia coffee unique and so special.
This coffee is sourced from smallholder farmers in the villages of Roricho, Bulga, and Solena, located in the surroundings of the Refisa Washing Station in the Nensebo woreda, West Arsi zone, Oromia region. The washing station is located within the village of Refisa itself which gives the lot its name but the coffee in this specific lot is grown exclusively in the immediately neighboring communities. Producers work plots averaging just 1 to 2 hectares, at altitudes between 1,900 and 2,070 meters above sea level. Cherries are hand-harvested and transported to the station often by donkey or horse where they are processed by SNAP Specialty Coffee under the direction of Negusse Debela. The station, founded in 2019, works with approximately 588 registered producers and operates 200 raised drying beds to ensure consistent, high-quality processing.
Tasting Notes: A delicate and bright cup with a surprising sweetness. At lighter roasts, lemon and a soft herbal tea notes take the lead, alongside mandarin, peach, and prominent florals like jasmine and coffee blossom. As the cup cools, the peach becomes a bit more intense, the acidity softens slightly without disappearing, and the cup stays clean and elegant, complemented by a honey-like sweetness and a soft caramel or vanilla finish. At medium roasts, the body rounds out and more chocolate-like notes emerge without sacrificing acidity or sweetness making this a very versatile coffee. However, we notice that at darker roasts the floral and fruit notes quiet down considerably, giving way to more chocolate and sweetness but at the cost of acidity and fruit.
Roasting Notes: Medium chaff, very easy to roast. Best between light and medium roast going too dark flattens the fruit and floral profile. On air roasters, a slightly slower development is recommended, as too fast a roast can push the cup toward herbal tones. That said, this is a very versatile coffee that performs well at any development percentage. A rest of 2 to 3 days post-roast is especially beneficial for the fruit and sweetness to fully express themselves, though after the first 24 hours most of its notes are already coming through.
West Arsi coffees occupy an interesting place within the Ethiopian coffee map. They are similar to a washed Yirgacheffe, but with softer spice tones and a broader, more fruit-forward character. Compared to coffees historically classified as Sidamo, Refisa tends toward greater brightness and floral complexity, with less of the neutral or chocolate-dominant profiles sometimes associated with lower-altitude Oromia lots. The combination of cool temperatures, consistent rainfall, fertile volcanic soils, and high altitude creates ideal conditions for denser beans and a sweeter, more complex cup profile. Until recently, coffees from this area were sold simply as “Sidamo”; Refisa is helping build a distinct identity for the region in the specialty coffee market.
SNAP Specialty Coffee was founded in 2008 in Addis Ababa by Negusse Debela, an entrepreneur previously known in Ethiopia as “the computer guy” he ran a successful computer parts import company. Everything changed during a business trip to Minnesota, where an Ethiopian pour-over revealed a world of flavors he had never recognized in the coffee from his own country. Back in Ethiopia, Negusse channeled his entrepreneurial spirit into the coffee industry with a clear mission: to process Ethiopian specialty coffee consistently and exceptionally. Today SNAP operates multiple washing stations of its own and collaborates with partner stations in the Gedeo, Guji, and West Arsi zones, exporting coffee to specialty markets around the world.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.