Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Org. Natural Gr. 1 – Konga – Takele Mammo Denbi

Description

Coffees from individual farmers are becoming less difficult to find in Ethiopia, but they are still extremely rare and require a full supply chain in their support. Every year there are a few new farmers available from just a handful of exporters devoted to making it happen.

Takele Mammo Denbi, at 47 years, is a brand-new participant in the Single Farmer Lots Program this year, but not at all new to the direct export process. Takele is currently stepping down after many years as the Managing Director of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, of which his own farm has been a member. Takele has directly helped this program succeed, but to avoid any conflict of interest excluded his personal coffee from the program. Takele cultivated this single farmer lot on his 8-hectare farm in the Konga disctrict, located in the heart of the coveted Gedeo Zone—the narrow section of plateau dense with savvy farmers whose coffee is known as “Yirgacheffe”. The Konga cooperative is well-known for its quality, and it’s a distinct pleasure having individual farmers from this perennially impressive community to celebrate, not to mention one as dedicated to farmer opportunity as Takele.

Tasting Notes: A great cup from city+ to full city roasts. Light medium to dark medium some would say. Although a natural, this is not a super fruity coffee, will show hints at lighter roasts along with some citric. These beans are more about the complex chocolate and spice notes, the sweet fruit highlights are just a little perk and balance the cup nicely. At lighter roasts it’s distinctly floral, Ethiopians heirloom strains in action, pronounces lime and lemon-zest acidity with a little sweet red fruit tone, strawberry like. These lighter tones comingle with a rustic chocolate and spice, slightly herbaceous at lighter roasts. At medium roasts it turns smooth and balanced, with a silky body (between light and medium) and a rustic chocolate like backbone that supports the hints of fruitiness well. Pushed darker it gains punch and shifts toward dark/baker’s chocolate and cocoa, while maintaining a medium-soft body. Overall: floral-leaning, sweet, and very clean.

Roasting Notes: Easy to roast and versatile across levels. Being a natural, it produces a bit more chaff, but performs very well: a lighter roast will amplify the bright acidity and citrus/floral side; at medium you’ll find the balance point between that acidity and the chocolate/caramel tones; taken darker it’s perfect if you prefer a cocoa/chocolate-forward profile, while keeping a medium-soft body. Adjust to taste: go lighter for brightness; go darker if you want cocoa.

Gedeb and Its Coffee
The district of Gedeb, where Takele’s farm is located, takes up the south-eastern corner of Ethiopia’s Gedeo Zone—a narrow section of plateau dense with savvy farmers whose coffee is known as “Yirgacheffe”, after the zone’s most famous district. Gedeb, however, is a terroir, history, and community all its own that merits unique designation in our eyes. Coffees from this community, much closer to Guji Zone than the rest of Yirgacheffe, are often the most explosive cup profiles we see from anywhere in Ethiopia. Naturals tend to have perfume-like volatiles, and fully washed lots are often sparklingly clean and fruit candy-like in structure.

Gedeb is remote but impressively industrious in coffee production. Half of its territory is planted with coffee. Until recently coffee exports were allowed only limited channels and the vast majority of coffee grown in this area was sold by the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), consolidated under the wide-reaching Worka Cooperative, or sold anonymously through the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX).

Today, however, in addition to the Worka Cooperative splitting into multiple smaller coops, there are increasing numbers of single farm owners like Takele and independent companies like Konga Trading who are processing and exporting direct. It is an exciting time to be buying in Gedeb, where we expect to see new layers of coffee continuously unfold as its local industry accelerates.