Chiriku (front)
  • Chiriku (front)
  • Chiriku (story)

Ethiopia

Chiriku, micro lot 2 - Ethiopia

250g

QUALITY SCORE: 89.00

Cup Notes
Mango, passionfruit, lemon zest, peach, nectarine

Suggested for espresso and filter


when we roast

We freshly roast to order all coffees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding national holidays), and ship the same day! Cut-off time is 11:59pm (UTC+1) of the day before the roast day. *We only ship whole beans*

Details

Quality Score
89.00
Producer
Several small farmers
Country
Ethiopia
Terroir
Yirgacheffe
Altitude
1900-2150 mt
Process
Classic natural
Arabica cultivar
Heirlooms
Picked in
January 2018
Arrived in
September 2018
Shipped in
Jute + GrainPro
Roast profile by
Rubens Gardelli
Roasted on
Customised solid-drum roaster

THE STORY BEHIND

This is a natural lot produced at Chiriku process station, in Gelana Abaya districts. It's run by Girma Gurara and receives deliveries from around 650 local growers.

Gelana Abaya coffees are produced in the Gelana and Abaya woredas (districts,) located just northwest of the town of Yirgacheffe. Gelana and Abaya are neighbouring woredas, Gelana to the south and Abaya to the north, stretched along the eastern slopes of the range of hills that separate Yirgacheffe from Lake Abaya. Both Gelana and Abaya are located in the Borena Zone of Ethiopia’s massive Oromia Region.

The altitude of the mill is 2140 masl with most growers who deliver to the mill being based at around 1900-2150 masl

This is a classic Yirgacheffe both in how it has been produced and how it tastes, which we selected on the cupping table based on that profile. Unfortunately when we choose coffees in this way we can end up a little short on information about the coffee itself but we really think this coffee doesn't need very many words alongside it...once it's in your cup we hope you'll taste just why we choose it!

Chiriku (story)

THE VARIETY

Ethiopian Heirloom, why the generic name? It's estimated that there are somewhere in-between six and ten thousand coffee varietals in Ethiopia. And due to this colossal figure, there hasn’t been the genetic testing to allow buyers to distinguish the varietal. With the cross pollination that naturally happens in the wild, the name ‘Ethiopian Heirloom’ exists as a catch all phrase to describe this happenstance. However, that really makes Ethiopian quite a mystery – and an interesting mystery with that as each village or town could potentially have a different varietal which could carry very unique properties.
Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, meaning it was only naturally found here.

Ethiopia Heirlooms (Variety)

THE FERMENTATION PROCESS

Dry process seems simple: pick the fruit, lay it out in the sun until it turns from red to brown to near-back, and then hull off off the thick, dried outer layer in one step to reveal the green bean. It is a method suited to arid regions, where the sun and heat can dry the seed inside the intact fruit skin.
It's often referred to as "natural coffee" because of its simplicity, and because the fruit remains intact and undisturbed, a bit like drying grapes into raisins. Since it requires minimal investment, the dry process method is a default to create cheap commodity-grade coffee in areas that have the right climate capable of drying the fruit and seed.
But it’s a fail in humid or wet regions. If the drying isn't progressing fast enough, the fruit degrades, rots or molds.
Dry-processed coffees can also be wildly inconsistent. If you want a cleanly-fruited, sweet, intense cup, dry process (DP) takes more hand labor than the wet process. Even the most careful pickers will take green unripe or semi-ripe coffee off the branch as they pick red, ripe cherry. If these are not removed in the first days of drying, the green turns to brown that is hard to distinguish from the ripe fruit.

Classic natural (fermentation)