Sideyard Coffee: January 7 - Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Dry Process 🫐🍓
Hello Sideyard Friends,
This week's coffee is from a lot that was grown on hundreds of extremely small farms in the Hambela Wamena region of Ethiopia. Until recently all the coffee from this processing station was sold to a large commodities exchange and blended in with coffees from dozens of other lots. Three years ago small processing stations in Ethiopia were granted access directly to buyers, thereby allowing them to differentiate their premium speciality lots and command higher prices. This is one of the promises of the speciality coffee market–better coffees command higher premiums, which leads to more longterm sustainability for farmers.
I roasted this same coffee back in November 2020 and remember loving it. I think this one is tasting a little different, but it doesn't disappoint. The aroma from the grounds is quite fruity and some of those same flavors (blueberry/strawberry) come through in the cup as well. For a dry process coffee it also has a surprising amount of tartness or acidity. If I had to choose just one coffee to drink this year, this might be it. If you feel differently about it, I won't hold it against you. I won't even ask you to hold your tongue. If, on the other hand, you feel similarly, we have two spare 12oz bags from this roast. :)
The origin track recommendation of the week is Gumegum by Hailu Mergia and the Walias.
Cheers,
Ryan