Description
A nicely fruited natural Ethiopian lot from Guji's Buku Abel, notes of sweet blueberry, strawberry, dark honey, and lavender aromatics.
This natural-process lot from the Buku Abel site delivers a fruit-heavy cup balanced by complex florals and deep sugar sweetness. The dry fragrance bursts with rich aromas of dried blueberry, strawberry jam, and lavender. On the palate, a wave of ripe blackberry, sweet blueberry syrup, and Concord grape takes center stage, supported by underlying notes of milk chocolate, candied orange peel, and dark honey. The mouthfeel is plush and heavy, finishing with a lingering, winey fruit sweetness and soft, well-integrated acidity.
The coffee undergoes a meticulous natural dry process that maximizes fruit intensity while maintaining exceptional cleanliness. Hand-selected, fully ripe cherries are delivered directly to the washing station, where they are floated in water tanks to remove any defective fruit. The dense, sugar-rich cherries are then laid out in thin layers on raised African drying beds. Over the course of 15 to 20 days, workers continuously turn the cherries throughout the day to ensure uniform drying and prevent over-fermentation, while covering them during peak afternoon heat and overnight moisture. This slow drying within the intact fruit skin allows the fruit pulp sugars to deeply penetrate the seed, creating its signature berry-forward profile.
Cultivated near the village of Buku in the high-altitude Hambela Wamena district of Guji, this coffee is grown by smallholder farming families at staggering elevations between 2,000 and 2,200 meters above sea level. The region's cool climate, high atmospheric pressure, and nutrient-rich soils cause the local heirloom landrace varieties to ripen slowly, concentrating natural sugars within the cherry. Smallholders tend their garden coffee plots using traditional, organic practices before delivering their daily harvest to the centralized Buku Abel processing site, producing some of the most sought-after natural coffees in southern Ethiopia.
