Blind Assessment

Evaluated as espresso. Lush, complex, richly sweet-savory. Peach, fine musk, cocoa powder, freesia-like flowers, pungent frankincense in aroma and small cup. Plump, syrupy mouthfeel; clean, crisp, cocoa-toned finish. The cocoa notes from the small cup bloom into dark chocolate in cappuccino-scaled milk, nicely complicated by flowers and frankincense.

Notes

This coffee tied for the highest rating in a tasting of natural-processed single-origin espressos for Coffee Review’s August 2018 tasting report. Southern Ethiopia coffees like this one are largely produced from distinctive traditional Ethiopian varieties of Arabica long grown in the region. Like virtually all southern Ethiopia coffees, this coffee is produced by villagers on small garden plots interplanted with food and other subsistence crops. This is a dry-processed or “natural” version, meaning the beans were dried inside the fruit rather than after the soft fruit residue has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees. Helen Chen, of Taokas Studio Coffee, is a Taiwan-based nano-roaster whose specialty coffees are available via her Facebook shop: https://goo.gl/4YPoAd.

Bottom Line

A natural-processed Ethiopia roasted for espresso that shimmers with an intricately layered range of sensation: sweet, savory, spice, floral, chocolate, fruit, expressed both in the straight shot and in milk.

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