mycuppa August 2014 Newsletter
Ethiopia Limu
Ethiopia is often called the spiritual home (and sometimes incorrectly, birthplace) of coffee.
History buffs would quickly correct that statement by declaring technically, it is Yemen.
Still, with such a very small and often low sporadic volume of trade in Yemen coffees, there seems to be an almighty gravitas towards Ethiopia as the physical location where coffee as a serious commodity was developed. It's heirlooms propagated around the world.
For this reason, Ethiopia's coffee beans are held in such high regard in the coffee industry.
Every roaster carries Ethiopian coffee, and it's often referred to as roasters as the "weapon of choice".
Ethiopian coffees, like most African coffees, deliver high intensity.
They punch well above their weight.
Whether it's a soaring sweetness, berry-infused fruit bombs or extraordinarily long finishes, Ethiopian coffee beans are the "feature or highlight" of any blend.
Coffee from Ethiopia can out-gun and out-point just about any other origin on its day.
The complexity in the cup is nothing short of amazing - rich cocoa, red berries, lemon and lime citrus explosions and a thick, syrupy finish like no other.
To understand Ethiopian coffee, you must know the five basic types.
Any discussion about Ethiopian coffee will be long and detailed.
For this article, we will highlight the character of Ethiopian coffees, introduce you to the five types and focus on the Limou as our feature coffee for August 2014.
Each type will produce a diverse range of cup characters, and the types are often treated as their entity - just like they were of a different origin altogether.
Yirgacheffe is referred to as the "king of coffees".
It is the high-grade, cream of the crop lots from the region known as Irgacheffe (no "Y"), and we call these "Yirgys" for short.
Yirgy's have a clean, crisp citric acid with floral notes and a lemon and honey finish.
Sidamo is in the southern central province and is a prolific producer of quality coffees.
Sidamo coffees can be some of the most intense and complex cups found in Ethiopia and provide a rich berry note (red or black) and, sometimes, chocolate in their flavour delivery.
Harrar is one of the original and oldest areas with very low crop yields.
Most of the coffee from Harrar is natural (sundried) and remains highly prized by roasters.
Unfortunately, over the last ten years, the quality of Harrar coffees has declined as many farmers in this region opt to grow alternative non-coffee crops with higher yields that can be converted to cash faster than coffee.
Harrar is one of those dangerous coffees that can be like a double-edged sword - mind-blowing blueberries and spice one minute, then rough, astringent ferment the next.
When a Harrar is good, it can blow away anything else on the table.
The challenge, of course, is that good lots are often encased in "average and poor" coffees.
Djimmah - the poor cousin and a coffee with a tremendous bite that is only sometimes clean.
It is known to have a rough cup and is generally relegated to the commodity-grade market.
Many mass-produced coffees contain a proportion of Djimmah to give some kick, e.g. capsules/pods, instant coffee, supermarket coffee, etc.
This brings us to the feature coffee this month - Limou (or Limu for short).
Limu is generally a fully washed coffee and is remarkably similar to Sidamo and, to a lesser extent, Yirgacheffe.
Limu is usually more consistent in the cup and can deliver a clean, reliable burst of flavour and acid.
We have used Limu coffee for over seven years, yet we only decided to start selling Limu as a single origin in August this year.
Why? Well, the answer is simple and short.
Ethiopia is one of the most difficult origins to source quality coffee.
Stock is often trapped on the piers in Ethiopia for weeks due to a complex set of political and infrastructure issues - being trapped for weeks in searing heat = degraded quality.
We always hunt for and locate quality Limu - a regular in our lineup.
Limu is a fundamental (and critical) element in most of our blends, so we act conservatively in reserving our holdings for our blends.
Limu is what gives our blends a highlight, and we have in the past tended to feature only Sidamo and Yirgacheffe coffees as single origins because we know the cup character of those coffees will change with every new pallet of coffee that arrives in our warehouse.
In early July 2014, we came across a very special Limu.
It was an ugly-looking coffee with a diverse range of screen sizes ranging from 10% at small peaberry and the remainder varying from screen 15 - 17.
This new Limu is extraordinary—clean, bright, super-sweet with lime and apricot notes and a heavy cocoa finish.
Over the last four weeks, we have ripped through more than 3 tons of this Limu, and with just a few tons remaining, we decided to let our mycuppa newsletter customers in on the opportunity before it was all gone.
We have listed a quality Limu as a single-origin offering.
It is superb in the cup and takes some of the best attributes of Yirgacheffe and the Sidamo coffee with that crisp, sweet finish that scores 84 points - well and truly specialty coffee.
As a black, or in milk, we think it is delightful.
We are all out of this coffee in 2021, sadly.
But we have many other single-origin Ethiopian coffees to choose from here.
