Description
Farm Description
Kebele Gorgora lies in Ethiopia’s Guji Zone, the area where this coffee was grown. At an altitude range of 1900 – 2300 meters, the farms in this growing region are some of the highest in Ethiopia. The coffee is purchased as whole cherry in town, then transported to the processing site in nearby Ketuma, where a privately-owned station was erected by a gentleman named Ato. One of three stations, Ato built his first processing site 15 years ago, and has refined their natural process capabilities, and also expanding the capacity they can handle during this time. This lot has been prepared to grade 1 standards, which employs extensive hand milling during the dry mill phase, resulting in a relative visual uniformity considering process method. In addition, Ato also operates a dry mill in Addis Ababa where he is able to oversee production quality on the final leg of coffee processing as it’s prepared for export.
Cupping Notes
This dry processed Guji Gorgora showed best best when roasted to at least City+, where heavy handed dry fruited notes, and a rustic sweetness define the cup. It’s a big bodied cup, with very mild acidity, which makes it a prime candidate for Ethiopia espresso, and also well-suited as a blend ingredient adding dark-fruited cocoa to an espresso blend. The aroma has a smell of berry fruit roll up, with an intense dark sugar sweetness that I liken to earth-toned date sugar, or rice syrup. For me, the cup has a mesh of flavors that come together like a Fig Newton style fruit bar, honey wheat and date sugar sweetness, dried fig and blueberry, and an all around weightiness in both flavor and consistency. In addition, the cool cup offers a dried apricot note, leathery undertones, sweet tobacco, and a cherry wood note in the finish. Full City roasts are still heavily fruited and laced with bittersweet chocolate, and body shows a milky consistency.