☕ Au naturale, Tinker coffee, a berry Ethiopian
Two fruity coffees and one experimental cup from roasters you've yet to hear of.
This is a biweekly newsletter exploring coffees that make you say “hmm!”.
Chech Lot 2 - Tinker Coffee
Ethiopia | Light Roast | Natural Process | Ethiopian Heirloom Variety
There’s nothing as classic as an Ethiopian natural. This one from Tinker is clean and sweet, with initial notes that remind me of pomegranate and cherry.
I snuck this bag out of Joe Coffee’s Education samples — don’t tell Sean 🤫
As the coffee cools, it takes on a different personality, with a slight savory note that reminds me of my mom’s 上汤苋菜, a sweet-savory medley of spinach and goji berries.
Don’t let soup talk scare you though. This coffee is approachable as it’s elegant.
Brew Method:
Hario V60 | 18g coffee | 260g water | grind med-fine (kosher salt) | ~3 mins
1st pour to 60g then swirl aggressively and finish with two more pours to 260g
Basha Bekele - Merit Coffee Co
Ethiopia | Light/Med | Natural | JARC 74160
Merit is a Texan brand I love because of Jamie Isetts. I picked up this coffee because of its tasting notes (Raspberry Jam, Honeydew, Blueberry) and its cultivar: JARC 74160, the selectively-bred coffee species of wildly occurring Ethiopian landrance.
The initial profile was a bit muted: subtle berry notes with a black-tea like finish. As the coffee has degassed in its second week, however, I taste blueberry, vanilla bean, and milk chocolate. It’s been a delicious daily drinker and I’ve learned more about Ethiopian varieties as a result.
JARC varieties are those that were developed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC), one of Ethiopia’s agricultural federal research centres, for increased resistance to pests and higher yields. There are around 40 such varieties. Whereas regional landraces are coffees that grow wild in Ethiopian forests.
— Producer Getu Bekele
Brew Method:
Hario V60 | 18g coffee | 240g water | grind med-fine (kosher salt) | ~3 mins
1st pour to 60g then swirl aggressively and finish with two more pours to 240g
Rafael Saraceni Dynamic Cherry- Chrome Yellow
Panama
Light/Med
Dynamic Cherry Process
Catuai, Typica
This coffee has a unique boozy flavor that reminds me of red wine. I first encountered this coffee on a trip to meet roasters in Atlanta (what up Big Sam).
Whenever you encounter coffees grown in the Creativa Coffee District (CCD) in Panama, think fun, funky, and experimental.
The Dynamic Cherry process is a twist on natural “dry” processing that expresses fruity, winey qualities in the final cup.
You can’t buy this from Chrome Yellow anymore, but reply to this email and I’ll hook you up with a sample.
In the Dynamic Cherry Process, we lay the coffee onto the patio in thin layers (5cm) for two days before beginning the fermentation process in plastic bags. The average temperature of our patio is 32° celsius, and this serves to reduce moisture levels to such an extent that water is not available to promote bacteriological reactions, but enough to aid enzymatic reactions within the structure of the bean. In doing so, we minimize the risk of fungal developments on the cherry in these first crucial few days. The embryo continues to transform the sugars in the endosperm into less complex sugars, and thus the coffee cherry remains “alive” for much longer. This can extend the process considerably, the longest batch of the harvest this year was three weeks.
— Producer Rafael Sarceni
Brew Method:
Hario V60 | 20g coffee | 320g water | grind med-fine (kosher salt) | ~3 mins
1st pour to 60g then swirl aggressively and finish with two more pours to 320g
Be sure to reduce agitation in your 2nd and 3rd pours as to not overextract the coffee — you may want to go coarser than usual
If you’d like to taste of any of these coffees, DM me your address and I’ll mail you a vacuum-sealed sample (50 grams of whole beans). Until I figure out how subscriptions work, Venmo me whatever you want @ira-ko.
What other coffees would you like to hear about? How can I make this newsletter more fun to read? Let me know in the comments.