Ethiopian Coffees

The Ethiopians are kicking ass this year.  Some of the coffees we've tasted have been just mind blowing.  I'll tell you about a few of them.  

The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Misty Valley is one of our current offerings.  In fact, we're brewing it today.  This is a fantastic dry-processed coffee from the Idido mill.  All of the Yirgacheffe coffees we've had in the past have been washed (wet-processed), and the best of them have had a nice citrus acidity and Earl Grey tea aromas and flavors.  This Misty Valley has those same characteristics, but it is more complex.  Still very bright with that crisp citric acidity, there is a fruity tone that confuses my palate a little.  It's probably berry, but it intermingles with the other classic Yirg tastes such that it's hard to distinguish.  The coffee is delicious; one of the best we've had to offer.

The other Ethiopian we're touting right now is a natural Sidamo from the Dara region.  It's another dry-processed coffee with deliciously sweet berry flavors.  Blueberry, caramel, sweet sweet sweet.  It's really, really smooth.  Easy drinking, probably in part because its acidity isn't as high as the Yirgacheffe and it isn't as complex.  It's just plain good.

If you've been around much, you've surely had both of those coffees.  But I just bought three new Ethiopians that you haven't tasted.

A company called Ninety Plus sent me samples out of the blue.  They were beautifully presented in white mylar bags and marked only with the company name and indications that they are micro-lots from "Aricha" and "Beloya."  I'd never heard of these places, so I honestly had no idea where they were from.  Which is fine because I like to blind-cup coffees; easier to get a true taste without preconceptions about what they should taste like.  The first time I cupped them (have you seen my new cupping lab?) they were on a table of 24 coffees- most samples from brokers and a few my own coffees.  In the end, 5 of the 6 coffees from Ninety Plus scored higher than almost every coffee on the table.  A couple of them stood out more than others for me.

So I cupped them again.  The second time, the same two coffees scored highest, but with different flavor profiles.  

So I cupped them again.  Fantastic.  I think I'm getting a grip on what these coffees generally taste like, and they are beautiful.  It's really hard to cup with these coffees on the table.  The last round they were in a group of 15.  The aroma, body and fruitiness of these coffees is so big that anything sitting next to them seems thin and unimpressive.  Which isn't fair because coffee flavors can be subtle and still amazing.  That's just not the case with these coffees.

Let me tell you about the coffees I bought.

The company is Ninety Plus.  It's owned by Joseph Brodsky, who also owns Novo Coffee in Denver.  He spent 8 months in Ethiopia last year learning about their coffees and sourcing some absolutely amazing stuff.  He has the coffees air-freighted out of Ethiopia, so they don't sit in a shipping container for months before we get them.  This is much more expensive, but it preserves the flavors of the coffees and drastically reduces the lead-time.  I paid for the Sidamo and Yirg we have now about 5 months before they actually arrived.  That's tough.  Anyway, here is an article from Fresh Cup Magazine describing the improvements of dry-processed coffees and how Ninety Plus is involved:  www.doubleshotcoffee.com/washedVnaturals.pdf

The coffees I decided to buy from my cuppings are two micro-selections from two different areas and mills in the Yirgacheffe region in Ethiopia.  Joseph works with the exporter Abdellah Bagersh to get these small lots of very distinctive coffees, flies them to Denver, re-packages them in mylar and sells them to us.  These lots are differentiated by number and the coffees we are getting are the Aricha 10, Aricha 14, and Beloya 12.

Below I will insert the documents Ninety Plus sent me describing the two different regions.

In case you can't tell, this is very exciting for me.  To have someone like Joseph Brodsky source coffees that I can and you can drink is sort of a big deal.  The market for very high-end specialty coffee is pretty tight.  The mega-specialty roasters (Inteligentsia, Counter Culture, Stumptown, etc.) have the capital to buy up great coffees before most of us even know they exist.  The prospect of having someone with such resources and high quality standards basically "shopping" producers, looking for the best coffees, not just for his own roastery, but to sell wholesale- that's huge.  Back to the coffees...

The Aricha 10 was a bit tangy with some tea flavors, a great aroma- lightly apricot with some possibly curried notes.  The second time I cupped it, the aroma was more floral and earthy and the flavors were lemony, tea, traditional washed Yirg flavors.  And the last time I cupped it, the aroma was cherry or strawberry, and definitely a citrus, strawberry flavor that was absolutely delicious.  My sample roasting situation isn't very good yet, so some of that variation can come from inconsistent roasts.  Part of it too is that these coffees are complex and different flavors can come out of them at different times.  The tasting notes Ninety Plus sent me are honey, tamarind, and apricot in the aroma with a balanced, light apricot flavor.

The Beloya 12 to me was a bigger, more fruity, striking coffee.  Every time I tasted it, I was enraptured by these experiences that seemed to go straight into my chest and tie my heart-strings into bows.  Aromas of berry muffins and a bit of tea (perfect for an English afternoon), great fruit flavors, and some maltiness, huge body, and it cooled into a very sweet nutty taste (probably walnuts or almond).  The second cupping it still had a big, fragrant, fruity aroma, possibly redcurrant with sweet berry, caramel, and possibly amaretto flavors.  And the third cupping I got sweet but tangy melon flavors and lots of berry.  Ninety Plus' cupping notes included aromas of carob, butter, and light berry with flavors of ginger, maple, raspberry, and spiced apple.

The Aricha 14 is the third coffee I bought from them.  I haven't gotten a clear cupping result from this coffee, but they are sending me another sample this week.  Their cupping notes are as follows:  Aromas of peach, strawberry lemonade, raspberry jam, spiced apple cider, and flavors of raspberry and grapefruit.  

Obviously, considering all the work that goes into these coffees, they aren't going to be cheap.  The farmers are paid twice the "fair trade" price for the coffees, then the processing is time-intensive, air freight is expensive, and packaging in mylar to retain freshness adds more cost.  But it will be worth it.  The great thing about coffees like this is that they are fleeting.  The Aricha 14 will be here in a couple weeks and the others will be here probably in 5 weeks.  I could only afford one 60 kilo bag of each.  After roasting, it will only leave us with around 112 pounds of each coffee.  That's not very much so when you get a chance, enjoy them.  They will sell for $34 per pound (including tax).  And I'm planning to brew these special coffees, but not sure yet how much they'll cost per cup.  ABSOLUTELY NO CREAM OR SUGAR WILL BE ALLOWED IN THESE COFFEES.

I may have a special event to taste the coffees after they all arrive, so stay tuned.