Description
Ethiopian natural processed beans are in a class of their own. Exotic tones that you will find in very little other coffee. The kings of the infamous “blueberry” toned coffee. A rare day that tone is achieved but in all nice lots of the natural processed you will find a balance of acidity (lemony floral), stone fruit (red-fruit), and usually a chocolaty semi-tea like dark tone. Depending on the region and exact processing, some can be more fruity or acidic than others, more chocolaty or more herbal.
This is a grade 1 naturally processed coffee from the Derikocha mill in Derikidame, Guji zone. This coffee is grown by 650 neighboring smallholders at altitudes of 6000 feet.
Tasting Notes: A wonderfully clean and exotic cup. Not nearly as herbal spice noted as its Yirgacheffe cousins. A bit of lemony floral acidity upfront quickly fading into nice red fruit notes and balancing with a smooth chocolate undertone that lingers in the aftertaste. Light roasts will promote much more citrus acidity but also leave the most red fruit tones in the cup. A longer setup helps with the lighter roasts for the citric tones will fade over time allowing more of the fruitiness and darker tones of the cup to shine. Medium roasts really bring forth the cleaner chocolaty tones in the cup reducing the fruit and citric tones to just a hint. Darker roasts burn out the fruit and acidity leaving a strong slightly edgy bakers chocolate cup with smoke smokier highlights.
Roasting Notes: Easy to roast, a little chaff heavy but shouldn’t overwhelm any of the roasters. Lighter roasts are where this cup will shine, a longer setup will really smooth it out and bring depth to the exotic fruitiness of the cup.
Shade grown, ripe cherries are delivered to the mill for careful sorting, to select only the ripest. The cherries are dried in the sun on raised African beds for approximately 12 – 15 days. In the daytime they are raked and turned periodically to ensure a consistent drying process; covered between 12pm and 3pm to protect them from sun damage and at night time to protect it from rainall and moisture. Once the coffee has dried to the right level it is milled, graded, sorted and thoroughly handpicked, before being bagged in GrainPro for export from the port of Djibouti.
The ‘Kebele’ of Derikidame is in Guji Zone, Gedeo Zone in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Over a number of years the region has developed a distinguised reputation for fine coffees, producing some of the most sought-after microlots in world. The combination of high altitude (up to 2,200m in some areas), fertile soil, consistent and plentiful rains, and an abundance of local knowledge are all contributing factors to the high status of Yirgacheffe coffees.
The local indigenous ‘heir-loom’ varietals – which grow wild in Ethiopia – are responsible for the unique flavour notes which make for an unusual but refined cup. When processed naturally through sun-drying these present with juicy and jammy stone-fruit flavours, floral and chocolate notes with a creamy body.
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