January 20, 2023

Sideyard Coffee: January 20 - Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Guji

Hello Sideyard Friends,

This week's coffee is from a producer by the name of Abiyot Agaze. His processing station is in the Western Guji Zone in Ethiopia and the coffee is grown by hundreds of separate small holder farms, most of which have a few hundred coffee trees or less. It's a dry process lot that requires near constant attention and hourly turning as the cherries dry on raised beds over the course of three to four weeks. Dry process coffees usually take a little extra wrangling in the roaster, but this one was even more unwieldy than average. I'll save the technical details and just say that it had me questioning my life decisions... until I had a chance to taste it the next morning. 

After two days rest, the coffee is smelling and tasting great. It starts with a slightly smokey and dark chocolate bittersweet note that opens up into a cooked berry note with a floral accent. When it all comes together just right in the cup, the word elegant comes to mind. I think this one might drift toward the darker notes over the next few days, so dive in now if you like things on the lighter end. 

The origin track recommendation for the week is Yene Mircha by the the great Ethiopian keyboardist Hailu Mergia. 

Cheers,

Ryan