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Price: $11.95

Ethiopia Dry Process Sidama Aleta Wondo

This coffee is from the Aleta Wondo woreda (a county, essentially) in Sidama region. We don’t know a lot about the specifics of this dry-processed coffee because it passed through the vortex of the official Ethiopia Coffee Exchange, which strips a coffee of exact producer information. It replaces specific cooperative or mill information with a type. But we believe this is a Shilcho coffee from Dale woreda that also classifies as Aleta Wondo since they are contiguous. In any case, we had to buy it when we cupped it; it is a perfect example of a heavily fruited, very sweet dry-processed Ethiopia coffee that does not “cross the line” into fruity-fermenty notes. While there is a little uncertainty about the origin of this lot, there is no uncertainty about the cup; it is wonderful. The dry fragrance has very intense fruit character; dried mango and peach in the light roasts with a heavy overlay of chocolate as you approach Full City+ levels. Adding the hot water the wet aromatics are a veritable fruit potpourri; hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, dried apricot. The cup has the sweetness of a tropical fruit salad. Peach and apricot dominate, with mango, passionfruit, guava and orange in the mix. At City+ roast the fruited notes are so sweet and intense. As you roast darker, an overlay of chocolate and caramelized sugars comes into play. The nature of the dry-process technique means a few under-ripe fruits usually sneak past the pickers, showing up as “quakers” in the roast. There are much fewer of them in this dry-processed coffee than the multitude of samples I have cupped this year, but you can remove some of them and improve the cup a bit. It’s always instructive to brew a cup of them, to learn the distinct peanut note they give to the cup, and astringent mouthfeel. (Note that this coffee is not from the Aleta Wondo project at commonriver.org, a nice organization in the same area!).Cupping credit: Tom Owen Processing: Dry; Varietal: Heirloom; Appearance: 17-18 screen. (15 oz. bag)