Preview Our List of New Ethiopian Coffees for the Next 3 Weeks

With so many Ethiopian coffees on the way, here’s a preview of what to expect.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve gone from no Ethiopian coffee, to more than we can possibly list! We’re pushing these fresh lots to the website just as fast as we can list them, and expect to add another 8 – 9 coffees over the next three weeks.

The coffees range from smaller lots from the Western regions of Bashasha and Agaro, to 100+ bag wet and dry processDry process coffee is a method for taking the fruit from the tree to an exportable green bean. The whole intact coffee cherry is dried in the sun... coffees from the Southern regions of Guji and Yirga Cheffe. The flavor profiles are as broad as the regional selection, and offer hefty berry-type naturals, to stone fruits and spiced notes, to the delicate, floralFloral notes in coffee exemplify the connection between taste and smell. Describing the taste of a specific flower is near impossible...we always default to “it tastes like it... cups that we look for from the fully washed coffees of the Southern regions.

We know that it can be frustrating to go all in on a coffee, only to see us launch the one you’ve been waiting for the very next week! So that we don’t catch you off guard, here’s a preview of our new Ethiopian coffees we’re adding in the coming weeks. Hopefully the advance notice helps you plan ahead.

Week 9/27 – 10/1

• Ethiopia Dry Process Buno Dambi Uddo: “Dambi Uddo” is a name we’ve featured in previous years, though not from this specific processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural... site. The coffee’s from the same region, and the cup is similar too. It has a complexThe co-presence of many aroma and flavor attributes, with multiple layers. A general impression of a coffee, similar to judgments such as "balanced" or "structured" mix of stone fruits, tropical fruits, and even green melon. Light roasts are floral, but more like fruitedIn some coffee taster’s lexicon, “fruity” means the coffee is tainted with fruit, and “fruited” means a coffee is graced by positive fruit notes. We don't exactly see... florals rather than actual flowers. A nice coffee to kick off the season with!
• Ethiopia Dry Process Dari Kidame: Of the two dry process, this lot offers the most balanceSuggests a harmony and proportion of qualities, and implies mildness since no one quality dominates.: Balance is both an obvious and slippery taste term. It implies a harmony.... It’s still fruited (we noted orangeOrange aromatics and flavors are prized in coffee, whether they take the form of sweet orange flesh and pulp, or orange peel. Orange flavors or aromatics can range... marmalade, mango, date, and more), but the fruit flavors are integrated into the coffee’s underlying bittersweetness. Dark roasts manage to pull out some blueberryBlueberry flavors in coffee take different forms. Dried blueberry was something we first encountered in natural Harar coffee from Ethiopia. It seemed to be most potent in fresh... too, which was a nice surprise.
• Ethiopia Guji Goro Bedessa: This is a wet processWet-processing starts by removing the outer skin of the coffee cherry with a machine called a pulper, then fermenting the remaining fruit (with green bean inside) in water... coffee, and the cup flavors are clean and succinct when roasted light. HoneyIn coffee, honey-like sweetness is often found, but we use terms such as refined honey (highly filtered and processed) as opposed to raw honey rustic honey sweetness. This... sweetnessSweetness is an important positive quality in fine coffees, and is one of five basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Savory (Umami). In coffee, sweetness is a highly... is one of this coffee’s highlights, a flavor that envelopes top note accents like apricot, English Breakfast tea, and aromatic jasmineA very positive and intensely floral quality in coffee, usually with a strong aromatic component, reminiscent of jasmine flower or tea. There are many forms of jasmine; the.... It also has this herbalA flavor descriptor in coffee reminiscent of herbs, usually meaning aromatic, savory, leafy dried herbs. Usually, more specific descriptions are given, whether is is a floral herb, or... rue note, something we tend to taste a lot in Guji coffees.

Week 10/4 – 10/8

• Ethiopia Dry Process Hambela Dabaye: This lot is made up of coffee from several small holder farmers around Dame Dabaye, Hambela. I’m in love with the light roasts, where a strawberry jam flavor impacts the cup sweetness, and adds to the perceived acidityAcidity is a positive flavor attribute in coffee, also referred to as brightness or liveliness. It adds a brilliance to the cup, whereas low acid coffees can seem... that is also like ripe berry. The cups are floral when roasted light, but much more intense with chocolateA general flavor or aroma term reminiscent of chocolate. But what type? Usually described with more specifics.: Chocolate is a broad, general flavor or aroma term reminiscent of... bittersweets when roasted to Full City. It’s worth noting there are some very small beans in the mix – probably 14 screen. I noticed some early snaps when roasting that preceded the beginnings of 1st CrackAn audible popping sound heard during roasting. In coffee, one refers to "first crack" and "second crack," which come from two different classes of chemical reactions.: An audible... for the bulk of the coffee.
• Ethiopia Dry Process Mansur Aba Hikam: This is the second year we’ve bought coffee from this single farmer estateA "coffee estate" is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does.... Lighter roasts promise a rustic-sweet overlay of palm sugar and pancake syrup, accents of dried fig, and a sticky-sweet fruit flavor that reminded me of coconut-covered date rolls. I’ve tagged this one to try as espressoA small coffee beverage, about 20 ml, prepared on an espresso machine where pressurized hot water extracted through compressed coffee.: In its most stripped-down, basic form, this is... later in the week as Full City roasts are incredibly bittersweetBittersweet is from the language of chocolate, and describes the co-presence of positive bittering compounds balanced by sweetness. It is directly related to caramelization, but has inputs from... and chocolatey, and not too acidic either.
• Ethiopia Agaro Musa Aba Lulesa: This wet-process coffee is from the Agaro region of Jimma, also a single farmer lot. I found it to be a little lower intensityWe have a simple scale to rate intensity in our coffee reviews, from Mild to Bold. Low intensity does not mean low quality!: We have a simple scale... in flavor than some of our other Ethiopias, which some folks will really enjoy. That said, a honey sweetness, stone fruit accents, and mild floral and tea-notes weave together a complex cup profile, and brought to mind some of our nicer Western Ethiopian coffees of years past, like Duromina for example. If you’re looking for an Ethiopia that’s versatile in the roaster, with a high potential for espresso too, this one should be on your radar.

Week 10/11 – 10/15

• Ethiopia OrganicGrown without the use of artificial fertilizers, herbicides, etc.: Organic coffee has been grown according to organic farming techniques, typically without the use of artificial fertilizers. Some farms... Dry Process Bookkisa: This coffee just cleared our offsite storageGreen coffee can be stored much longer than roasted coffee: Roasted coffee starts to lose its aromatics in 10 days after roasting. Green coffee can be stored months... facility and we finally were able to cup an arrival sample. First impressions are that Bookkisa is on the delicate side for a natural, with fruit flavors pointing to honey dew melon, with that floral aspect that incites a retronasal response. Really nice! I have a feeling from the shadow of cocoa underneath, that deeper roast development will pull out more of the high cocoa solids type bittersweetness, and perhaps alter fruited flavor notes some too. Can’t wait to play with roast levels when we have more green next week!
• Ethiopia Hambela Benti Nenka: We’re familiar with Benti Nenka coffee via the dry process lot we bought last year (same group as Hambela Dabaye), but this is our first go-around with a wet process version of this coffee. Our initial cup tests showed sweetness akin to sugar cane juice, with hints of raisin, orange zest, and other dried fruits. It brought to mind fruit pastries, scones with dried fruit! This is another Ethiopia I think will work at a varietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies... of roasts – and the fruit flavors will likely shift with deeper roasting – but we’ve only tried the one light City roastCity roast is what we define as the earliest palatable stage that the roast process can be stopped and result in good quality coffee. City roast occurs roughly... so far.

These coffees hardly scratch the surface of our entire Ethiopian volume, most of which has landed this month. Barring unforeseen delivery snafus, you can expect these coffees on the weeks we have them listed (but we may try to squeeze one or two more in if we can physically manage the work!)

In the meantime, check out our current Ethiopia lineup on Sweet Maria’s or Coffee Shrub.

Get a more broad snapshot of incoming coffee origins in our Green Coffee Outlook