Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Org. Natural – Chelbesa – Sheferaw Gelegelu – Gr 1

Description

Shiferaw Gelgele Tero grows coffee on his 3.8 hectare farm in the Chelbesa community, located in the south-eastern corner of the coveted Gedeo Zone– the narrow section of plateau dense with savvy farmers whose coffee is known as “Yirgacheffe”. This more remote corner of the Gedeo plateau centers its commerce around the trading city of Gedeb, a bustling outpost that links commerce between Gedeo and Guji zones, and, it must be mentioned, produces some of the most beautifully perfumed and candy-like natural coffees one can find in all of Ethiopia.

The communities surrounding Gedeb reach some of the highest growing elevations for coffee in the world, and are a truly enchanting part of the long drive into Guji. In addition to coffee Shiferaw grows common subsistence and local market crops like beans, cabbage, and enset, a fruit-less relative of the banana tree whose inner pulp is packed into cakes and fermented underground, and eaten as a staple starch year round.

This is the first year we have featured Shiferaw’s coffee. Coffee is Shiferaw’s main source of income that he uses to support his family. Ripe cherries for this natural processed coffee were carefully hand sorted and floated to remove less dense coffee beans before drying on raised beds for 15-21 days. Beds are carefully constructed to ensure proper air circulation and temperature control, for optimal drying.

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 dissapear. 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.