Blueberry Muffin, White Chocolate, Strawberry Sorbet, Mandarin Orange, Rose Petal, Complex
This is one of the lots that have come from a group of small farmers in the Sidama region of Southern Ethiopia. This group of farmers all have between 3 and 12 hectares and all have their own export licenses. With the changes to export laws in Ethiopia, small producers are now able to market their coffee directly, but this is still very challenging, and few have access to capital to make this happen. The main limitation these small producers have is cash flow.
For this harvest, however, the community assigned Buriso Amaje as their group leader, who became responsible for the milling and export of the coffee. Buriso is a leader in the Dambi Village community found in the Bensa district of Sidama, where he has 12 hectares of coffee growing under native forest shade.
If this coffee had been sold in the local spot market, it would eventually have been delivered into the ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange), where the efforts of Buriso and his community would have gone unrecognised. However, in this case, our importers Falcon Specialty, prefinanced the coffee in order to ensure the farmers weren’t forced to sell their coffee locally for cash. Buriso was then able to sell this coffee directly to Falcon’s local partners in Ethiopia, enabling them to provide the appropriate credit and traceability to our customers.
Buriso’s group has amazing potential and we are already seeing that translate into excellent cup quality with this superb lot. However, our importers, Falcon Specialty, continue to provide this collective with ongoing support, and have dispatched an agronomist to train the community on farm management and picking, processing and drying processes. This is a great investment in people and should yield even more impressive results in the years going forward.
Buriso grows the 74158 and 74160 varieties which are both selections from the Jimma research centre. These varieties were selected from wild plants in the Metu-Bishari forest in the Illubabor zone in Western Ethiopia. They’re widely distributed varieties across Ethiopia and were selected for their resistance to CBB and their high yield. These two selections are known to have very pronounced citrus and floral notes which are prized by coffee buyers. Buriso is strict on his cherry selection, ensuring that the coffee is as high quality as possible. The coffee is processed and dried at Buriso’s family home. Like many small producers in Ethiopia, Buriso is still producing only natural coffee, since that is the tradition and they don’t have access to a pulping machine - but that suits us just fine as we love our naturals at Amoret!
This natural Sidama lends itself incredibly well to both filter and espresso brewing. It makes outstanding Flat Whites, where it displays sweet blueberry muffin and chocolate orange flavours. As a straight filter, expect strawberry milkshake on the nose, syrupy sweet mouthfeel, with blueberries and orange citrus coating the palette, and a floral hit of rose petals on the finish. This is a deeply aromatic, very sweet, clean and complex coffee - a great example of a classic Ethiopian natural that not only tastes incredible, but is also transforming the lives of quality obsessed farmers with every passing season.
Sourced by Falcon Specialty Coffees.
