Roast: light / / / / / / / / / dark

Process: Natural

Variety: Gibirinna 74110, Serto 74112

Another first for the store: the 2024 Ethiopian harvest has arrived and this natural process is one of my favorites! This coffee has big overtone flavors of kiwi, honeysuckle, and molasses with undertones of strawberry and hops. If you love a bold-tasting naturally processed coffee, this is worth every sip.

Coffees grown in the Guji zone of Ethiopia are known for their pristine acidity, impressive florality, and intense flavor profiles. This offering from Sookoo Coffee showcases all of these attributes quite well. Like most farmed crops in Ethiopia, coffee trees grow in semi-forested environments. The growing altitude for this lot is 2,000-2,150 meters (quite high), allowing for a slower ripening process of the coffee fruit. These factors tend to produce coffee cherries with small and dense seeds. High-density coffee typically has more complexity and depth of flavor.

Sookoo Coffee is owned by Ture Waji and his brother Assefa. It consists of one washing and two drying stations. This particular lot was dried at their Suke station where cherries from the surrounding kabeles (villages) are processed under kabele names (in this case, Shoondhisa). These cherries were harvested at 35 different small farms and dried with their skin on, spread out in very thin layers for 15-20 days on raised beds. Once the cherry skin has shed an optimal amount of moisture, it is milled off and the coffee is prepared for export. 

In the birthplace of coffee (Ethiopia), all coffee plants are the native heirloom (landrace) variety of the globally enjoyed Coffea arabica species. All other arabica coffee around the world genetically links back to Ethiopia. The specific arabica varieties found in this lot are Gibirinna 74110 and Serto 74112, whose origins are from the Metu Bishari forest in the Illubabor Zone. Although Ethiopia has many different growing zones, researchers from the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) have propagated seeds from trees in this growing area for their resistance to Coffee Berry Disease. Now these JARC selections are two of the most propagated varieties in the country. Coffee from Ethiopia is distinctive and delicious, and tasting coffee fruit grown in native soil is a unique experience. Special thanks to the people of Sookoo Coffee and Osito Coffee for this wonderful offering!