Sideyard Coffee: June 11 - Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Yirgacheffe 🍓🍌 + extras
Hello Sideyard Friends,
This week we're drinking a coffee from the renowned Yirgacheffe district of Ethiopia. It's a natural/dry processed coffee, meaning the drying process starts with laying the in-tact coffee cherries out in the sun, rather than removing the fruit from the seed (a process referred to as pulping) immediately after harvesting. As the coffee cherry dries around the seed it tends to impart more concentrated citrus and fruit flavors. The dry process method can also impart wildly fermented or earthy flavors that tend not to be as desirable. This one is all upside. I'm getting strawberry, lemon, and banana. It's a fun one.
Also, it's roasted dark enough to make a great cold brew with cream. My favorite way to make an iced coffee is with the Japanese method. Unlike typical cold brew recipes, there's no waiting 12-24 hours. All you need is a pour over brewer and some ice. Because you're replacing 1/3 to 1/2 of your total water with ice, I recommend grinding your coffee quite a bit finer than you might typically. Otherwise, it's really quite straightforward. Here's a recipe/walkthrough from Bon Appetit.
The origin track for the week is this dreamy piano composition by the Ethiopian funk/jazz musician Hailu Mergia.
Cheers,
Ryan
p.s. I have five extra 12oz bags this week. Grab one to grind up for a big batch of traditional cold brew?