Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Natural – Gedeb Halo Hartume – Daniel Mijane Gr. 1

Description

Recent changes in the Ethiopian export rules have opened new opportunities to develop relationships with vertically integrated suppliers. Mijane Woresa, who has worked in coffee for more than 30 years, recently seized on the opportunity and establish an export company along with his sons, which allows them to directly offer lots from their two washing stations, Halo Hartume and Worka-Sakaro, located within the Gedeb district.

The Ethiopia Gedeb 1 Halo Hartume is sourced from 400 farmers who cultivate coffee on small plots and deliver their cherry to the Halo Hartume washing station. On arrival, cherries are carefully hand sorted and floated to separate out less dense beans, then depulped, fermented for 48 hours, and washed and classified again in channels.  The parchment is placed on raised beds where it is hand sorted again and dried over a period of 12 to 15 days. The parchment is also covered during the afternoons to prevent harsh drying in the intense sun.

As a family owned business, Mijane and his sons emphasize social impact in the communities where they source coffee. They have invested in more localized cherry collection sites to reduce the transportation cost for small producers. Mijane’s family have also contributed to road construction projects that make travel for everyone a bit easier. They are also responding to the local needs for investing in school infrastructure projects and making sure the children have equipment to play sports.

Tasting Notes: Fantastic example of an Ethiopian Natural. Keep this one light to medium roasted. Too dark and the awesome crisp and clean fruit/floral notes disappear. A mellow cup on the sweeter side with nice red fruit tones popping right out. The cool natural tones balance with a tea like spice note, a sign of its roots, Yirgs are known for their more tea like dark tones. Many would call it a chocolaty undertone with a jazzy spice note but we like the tea reference and most will agree. A bit more delicate of a cup with a little lower acidity than the other Ethiopian lots. Depending on what you like this can be a real perk, fruity and sweet without risking high acidity or overly sour tones at the lighter roast points. A little easy to roast out the fruitiness, so don’t let it get too dark!

Roasting Notes: Natural processed with good prep on it, a fairly easy bean to roast. A bit higher chaff and one will notice a little two toned roasting but being tasty from light to dark, should not be a problem getting a tasty cup. Recommend starting at a nice medium roast, if you don’t like acidic and floral, error a little darker, if you love fruity floral, error a little lighter. A little longer setup really smooths out the cup, can be a little more extreme 1-2 days after roasting.