Ethiopia Echemo – Certified Organic

A sweet and delicate coffee with flavours reminiscent of stone fruit, flowers and white tea.

250g pack whole bean ship within 24 hours
100% specialty arabica coffee beans only
Tim Wendelboe's coffee beans are at their peak 2 to 3 weeks after roasting

Tim's Note: 

A few years ago, Khalid built a new wet mill on his farm. He is now able to produce washed coffees whereas before we were only able to buy natural- and honey processed coffees from him. Interestingly I find his washed coffee to be much more expressive and flavourful, yet it is more delicate and clean.

Last November I was finally able to go and visit Khalid at the start of his harvest. The goal was to go through his production steps to see if we could agree upon a protocol for him to follow in order to try to elevate the quality of his coffees. As usual there were many small details that could be improved, some with small and others with major impact on the final quality. A few of the major ones included separation of every daily picking, keeping each daily lot stored in air tight grain pro bags after drying.  Drying the coffees under shade nets, keeping better control of the fermentation and slightly changing the process were also part of what we changed and improved. This meant that I was able to evaluate around 20 samples, each representing a daily picking,  instead of just 2-3 samples like previous years where the coffees had been bulked together.

By doing this we were able to remove the lower qualities from the higher quality lots and in combination with better processing and drying practices the coffees really cleaned up and became more expressive. We would of course not be able to change all this in such short time had it not been for the wonderful help and follow up done by Fantanesh Keleme and the whole team at Belco in Ethiopia, who made sure Khalid understood and followed the protocols for all the coffees he produced for us.

We also milled the coffees in a smaller dry-mill this year where we were able to vacuum pack the coffees from Ethiopia for the first time. This helps preserve the coffees flavour and freshness for a much longer time.   

 The washed coffees from Echemo are very delicate and soft. I find it is like drinking a white tea with some nice notes of peach and florals. It is very different to the typical Yirgacheffe or Guji coffees from the south of Ethiopia, most likely because it is grown in a different area and is from different cultivars.  

Like many Ethiopian and Geisha coffees, this coffee can produce a bit more fines (dust) during grinding which means it might clog your paper filter when brewing filter style like V60, Kalita or similar. Hence you might experience much longer brew times. My recommendation is to not grind coarser but rather try to agitate the slurry less while brewing and let it take some more time to finish. High extractions of this coffee only makes this coffee more aromatic and sweet.    

Cultivar:

Khalid is mainly growing old cultivars that was planted by his grandfather many years ago. When establishing the farm, Khalid’s grandfather selected seeds from wild coffee trees from the the nearby Coche forest and the trees he planted are still producing well today.

Process:

Picking and sorting

• The coffee cherries are selectively hand picked by hired workers from the local community and sorted before they rest over night in the cherry receiving tank.

Depupling, fermenting & washing

• The cherries are de-pulped in the next morning.  Once de-pulped, the parchment coffee, with it’s mucilage still on, is wet fermented in clean water for about 24 hours. After fermentation the coffee is graded and washed in a washing channel in order to remove the remaining mucilage and grade out the light coffee beans.

Drying

• The coffees are dried on elevated drying tables covered with shade nets where defect parchment coffee gets sorted out by hand. Drying the coffee takes about 12 - 14 days. During daytime the coffees are raked to ensure even drying.  The drying process is finished when the moisture content in the coffee beans is between 9- 11,5%.

Storage, logistics and milling

• After drying, the coffees are stored in air tight grain pro bags. Each daily picking is stored in separate bags until its final moisture and quality is checked and verified.  Lots with acceptable moisture content and quality are then delivered to the dry mill in Addis Ababa where the coffee gets cleaned and sorted before packaging for export. The coffee is vacuum packed in sealed plastic bags before it is exported.

Brewing Recipe :