Ethiopian Asikana – Birbir Sololiya – Org. Natural Gr. 1

Description

A very cool new Ethiopian project brought to us by our buddies at Terruno Nayarita! Dev and Jim of San Cristobal have been working with Asikana for a couple seasons now bringing their traceability and production model to Africa! The results are wonderful, make sure to check out the full traceability here.

The founders of Asikana Coffee, Mr. Bodja Gelalecha and his family have deep community ties with the area stretching back for over 200 years. Coffee cultivation is an integral part of rural life in that part of the country. Bodja, the eldest son of a farmer, with a thirst for greater knowledge and education, grabbed the opportunity for schooling at an early age. Having finished his master’s degree in developmental studies, he worked in various development projects that informed his vision for Asikana. Our goal is to improve living standards in our family’s native community by developing and educating its’ members in producing high quality coffee that is competitive in the world market. The company hinges on the belief that true sustainable development starts from here – the farmers, the community and the land.

Tasting Notes: A very nice and clean high rated cup. Lighter roasts show very floral tea like character, hints of floral lemongrass, soft fruit and the classic herbal tea like chocolaty factor similar to a Yirgacheffe. The fruitiness is subtle and not over the top, a natural processed pretty much everyone will love. Medium roasts accentuate the more chocolaty cup profile and mute up a bunch of floral and lemony acidity, drawing out the subtle red fruit tone a little more, which is quite tasty. Darker roasts get strong and chocolaty which some may love but are also the roughest tasting roast level, bakers chocolate and smoky tones mixing with hints of soft fruit and spice.

Roasting Notes: A little higher chaff and slightly two toned, this would be considered an easier to roast natural coffee but still may require a smaller batch size because of the higher chaff level. We recommend shooting for the medium roast level but erroring lighter than darker, much of the jazzy Ethiopian tones will burn out if too close to 2nd crack.