Counter Culture Coffee
Organic Fair-Trade Ethiopia Sidamo Shanta Golba
| Roaster Location: | Durham, North Carolina |
| Coffee Origin: | Sidamo Province, southern Ethiopia |
| Roast Level: | Medium-Dark |
| Agtron: | 46/55 |
| Review Date: | June 2006 |
| Aroma: | 9 |
| Acidity: | 7 |
| Body: | 8 |
| Flavor: | 8 |
| Aftertaste: | 7 |
Blind Assessment
Opulently complex aroma: cherry, blueberry, dry semi-sweet chocolate, brandy. In the cup very sweet, gently rich; the chocolate grows rounder and more distinct with continued blueberry and brandy complication. The rich, dry brandy notes dominate a slight astringency in the finish.
Notes
A dry-processed or "natural" coffee, meaning the beans are dried inside the fruit rather than after the fruit has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or "washed" coffees. A prize winner in the 2005 Ethiopia ECafe Competition, (www.ecafefoundation.org) competition, where as a green (unroasted) coffee it placed third in the dry-processed category, attracting a score of 91.34 from an international jury. Counter Culture Coffee is a small-batch wholesale specialty roaster with a particularly informative and lively website and youthful, enthusiastic leadership. Visit
Who Should Drink It
Cautious adventurers: The fruit ferment behind this coffee's cherry/chocolate/brandy character is relatively low-key and pretty much stays out of the way of the heady front-end aromatics.
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This review originally appeared in the June, 2006 tasting report: Readers' Choices: The Lush, the Classic, the Ultra-Dark
