Ethiopia
Atinafu Baleta
Gedeb Woreda
Uraga Shakiso District
2000-2200 masl
Washed
Jasmine dragon pearls, apricot, and butterscotch.
We often look at a delicious coffee much like a perfect family recipe. It combines method, science, experience, endeavour and intergenerational knowledge (passed down from Nonna!).
First, we must start with impeccable green beans. Green bean thrives in temperate and stable growing conditions supported by rich nutrient soil. Particularly for delicate heirlooms, this ensures a transparent expression of its terroir (environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment, farming practices and specific growth habitats).
Like many coffees from Ethiopia, this coffee collaborates with local smallholder farmers growing coffee in 'Coffee Gardens', many cultivating small lots typically less than 2.5 hectares. In a nurturing, unique microclimate under the shade of the native forest, cherry is selectively picked with quality and sorting controls essential, and stringent processing is vital.
It is here that producer Atinafu Baleta is one of our star ingredients. Collaborating with approximately 670 local smallholder farmers in Yabito Tome village, local farmers deliver ripe cherries to Atinfu's wet mill. Atinafu Baleta then ensures meticulous sorting, pulping, fermentation, washing, and drying--executed to perfection.
Varietal: Heirloom is an umbrella term used to identify the abundance of wild indigenous coffees that grow in Ethiopia. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, has seen a plethora of wonderful breeding, cross-breeding, and endlessly mutating coffee varietals that number in the thousands. As is often the case, once a desirable varietal is discovered (usually with particular flavour attributes in mind), it will be separated and cultivated on a small farm where it may later be identified as a new varietal. This is one of the things that makes sampling and selecting heirloom varietals so enticing—a surprise almost always awaits.