March 3, 2023

Sideyard Coffee Notes: Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Benti Nenka Dry Process

Hello Sideyard Friends,

This week's coffee is a dry process Ethiopia from the Benti Nenka area. As ever with dry process lots, this coffee was a bit of a headache in the roaster. Call it a love-to-drink-it/hate-to-roast-it relationship. The first two batches got away from me and are not included in what we bagged up for delivery and pickup this week. We'll taste and report back on their status. If it's not too ashy tasting, we might bag some of it up and offer it as a pay-what-you-want situation. 

The coffee that behaved as expected in the roaster is tasting great! It has a characteristic dry process profile--fruity and just a little funky. The fruits are darker toned like dried apricot and plum and pair nicely with a bittersweet chocolate edge that comes through with the strong medium roast level. At times I pick up on a lighter floral berry note as well--especially in the aroma. 

The origin track recommendation for the week is Mr Astatke from the Krar Collective of London via Addis Ababa. They're named after the krar--a traditional six stringed Ethiopian lyre. 

We have a couple extras from this week and a couple of last week's Colombia as well. 

Cheers,

Ryan