To be honest I was a little concerned regarding the quality VS the expectations we had on Ethiopian coffees this year. But apparently I shouldn’t have been at all, as they are damn good when landed, even better than last year!

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When I was there earlier in the season I felt the flavors where slightly hidden and covered and the coffees didn’t performed the way I hoped for. They were good but not as complex and stunning as they can be. Still, we saw potential in the coffees, and basically bought what was performing better on the cupping tables at the time. We also knew that the producers we work with should be able to make some of the greatest stuff there is, and just made sure we got the best outturns they had.

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Basically, we cupped the samples at the early stage in origin and followed up by cupping confirmation samples sent on the lots we were interested in. Seife, our partner in Ethiopia, was running around down there like crazy to follow up samples, milling, etc. and pulled preship samples of every stock lot we were interested in. The coffees improved every time we had a new sample, and finally now at arrival they have opened up and are more complex and full of flavors than ever. I think they needed some extra rest for some reason. I have seen this huge positive change in flavors before, on both Kenyans and Ethiopians, but not normally as significant as this year.

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Anyhow, we do now have great coffees in stock and more to come.

The first container of Wote from Yirgacheffe was reserved and sold out even before arrival, but we will get a second shipment in by July.

Hunkute and Bokasso from the Sidamo Cooperative Union are now in stock. We still have some amounts, but be quick if you want to make sure to have some. We scored them around 90 points which is rare for us in general for any coffees! Check out flavor descriptions for Bokasso here and Hunkute here.  There is a Konga Natural on the way as well. Part of it is gone, but we are waiting for more PSS samples to arrive this week so let us know if you are interested and are looking for sales.

We are also getting a second container in this week from the Yirgacheffe Cooperative Union with a washed coffee from Konga Cooperative as we have some small amounts left of the limited ”One Farmer One Roaster” from the producers Workye Shallo and Mesele Haile. Read about these unique coffees here.

A small holder bordering the  Konga Cooperative washing station. She's a member delivering cherries to the Cooperative as well as she have a nursery and are selling seedlings to the other local farmers.

We will also have a great selection from the west coming in the next weeks as well. Again they are all a result of TechnoServe’s work in Ethiopia, and you can read about it here. Unfortunately we couldn’t manage to get ahold of enough pre ship samples to be able to give the ones begging for samples a teaser for those. We had some really small amounts, but we are pushing for samples now prior to arrival. We might be able to distribute a few in the next week for those who wants to check them out.

Just to give you a heads up there is:

50 bags each of two great coffees from the Kaffa region, Michiti and Chiri. They are performing amazingly well and in my opinion Chiri has improved a lot from last year. It was good then, but truly great now!

100 bags each of Debello and Kecho Tirtira. Both super delicate coffees grown at about 2000 meters altitude in Limu Kossa. Floral, citric, juicy, bright and delicate.

100 bags of Bifdu Gudina. This is a new coffee from a brand new cooperative in Agaro we added to our portfolio for this year. It’s cupping amazingly well. Agaro is known for some of the most intense, spicy and complex coffees from the west and have a truly unique flavor profile that have been recognized as the origin for some of the most sought-after coffees in specialty the last few years.

Typical set up for a new Techno Serve wet mill with Penegos eco pulpers, soaking tanks and skin drying and parchment sorting under shade.