Ethiopia Aricha GR3 Natural - Green

$ 6.99

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Harrar, Oromia
Varietal: Heirloom
Farm: Smallholder Farmers
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1,800 MASL
Cupping Notes: Tootsie Roll, Dried Fruit, Sweet Bread, Cherry
Recommended Roast:City to Full City+
Good For:Pour Over, Auto Drip, Full Immersion, Blends

Description: It goes without saying that Ethiopia is famous for producing some of - if not the - best coffee in the world. Communities have great coffee production built into their ecosystems. The region has seen a decline in specialty coffee production in recent years, so we’re always excited to see delicious coffees from Harar, and it’s always a safe bet going with a natural. This lot, upon arriving to the washing station was hand sorted to remove less desirable cherries, and then went directly to the raised drying beds for 21 days, until it was fully dried. Coffee is then transported to the capital, Addis Ababa for final milling. (Just for a bit of perspective, that simple “transport” to the capitol is a 10 hour drive by off-road vehicle, I can’t imagine what it’s like in a big truck, carrying thousands of pounds of coffee.)

After all of it’s travel, this lot landed at Bodhi tasting worth the trip. We get a fun chocolatey note reminiscent of Tootsie Roll™, the sweetness of a sugary pastry, and the fruitiness of dried fruit and fresh cherries.

NIce smooth Sidamo

This is a nice Ethiopian with sweet notes but not much acidity and a very smooth chocolate finish. I liked how clean a cup it makes but I miss the citrusy fruitiniess up front of some Panama typicas that I have roasted. I pulled the beans two minutes after first crack which usually gives me a nice robust coffee with some acidity. I may pull the next batch at 90 seconds to see if it adds to the acidity. One issue I had with the beans were the amount of smaller almost peaberry size beans. Since it is grade 3 it is allowed to have 15% distribution of beans under size 15. There were a lot more with this order. There were also quite a few quakers per batch, but these are natural processed. If the beans were more similarly sized I would have given it a higher score for a more even roast.