ETHIOPIA GUJI WOLICHU | January 2024
It feels right to start the new year by going back to the beginning. Ethiopia is the ancestral home of all coffee, and centuries of coffee growing have led to an unmatched level of tradition, knowledge and quality in this East African coffee heartland.
Ethiopia Guji Wolichu kicks off our 2024 Bean of the Month program in fabulous style. Orange, pear and honey aromatics are a delicate and soft introduction to the apricot flavour note in the brew. But don’t be fooled, this is a classic natural-process Ethiopian at its heart. Cherry and chocolate flavours flood the palate, carried in the medium body, and finishing with a well-rounded toffee apple and cacao finish.
This harvest comes from a co-operative washing station in the Guji zone, where farmers come to process and sell the harvests from their two-hectare farms. Over 800 individual farms from around the town of Hara Adama ¬ rely on the mill for their coffee processing! Natural processing is part of the Ethiopian tradition, drying the fruit onto the beans enhances the coffee’s distinct fruity and floral notes while preserving its inherent complexity.
COFFEE ORIGIN PROFILE
Country: Ethiopia
Region: Guji
Producers: Wolichu Sodu Station (small lot producers)
Varietals: JARC varieties, local landraces
Process: natural
Altitude: 2100m above sea level.
The Guji region of Southern Ethiopia was previously considered part of Yirgacheffe but was delineated as a separate microregion thanks to its unique growing conditions that produce a spectacular profile that’s floral, complex and sweet.
The Wolichu Sodu coffee washing station was founded in 2018 to serve the 800+ farmers in and around the town of Hara Adama in Uraga, in the Guji district. During harvest, farmers deliver coffee cherries to the station daily, with each producer tending to an average of two hectares of land, producing food for their families and cash crops like coffee.
The station employs the traditional Ethiopian natural processing method, where the cherries are carefully laid out on raised beds to dry under the sun. Drying the fruit onto the beans enhances the coffee's distinct fruity and floral notes, characteristic of Ethiopian coffee while preserving its inherent complexity.
Wolichu Sodu takes pride in its sustainable practices, employing environmental conservation and fair-trade principles. They work closely with farmers to promote eco-friendly cultivation techniques and provide fair compensation, contributing to the socio-economic development of the local community.
TASTING NOTES
Delightfully balanced, the Ethiopia Guji Wolichu combines the delicate complexity Ethiopia is known for with the depth of the best naturally processed coffees.
Guji Wolichu is a coffee that reveals itself slowly. The first impression is soft and mellow: orange, pear and honey rise gently from the grounds.
This light touch carries through in the apricot flavour note before the classic Ethiopian tastes of cherry and chocolate flood the palate. Medium sparkling acidity keeps the mouthfeel clean, and the lingering impression of candy-sweet toffee apple intermingles with the rich warmth of cacao in a satisfyingly well-rounded finish.
BREW RECOMMENDATIONS
Served with milk, the chocolate/cherry notes dominate. It’s sweet and strong, perfect for those who love a coffee with plenty of flavour but aren’t keen on the bitterness that so often follows.
Black coffee drinkers and Ethiopian naturals are a match made in heaven. Apricot is one of the most sought-after flavours in the coffee lexicon, and for good reason. It’s sweet without being cloying, delicate and yet instantly recognisable. Fresh, clean and deeply enjoyable.
Plunger brewing brings out the body, stovetop the bright cherry and rich cacao notes.
Pourover transforms the cup into something more delicate and tea-like, sparkling notes of fruit and honey melding into one another, and rising and falling as the brew cools. Just lovely.
COFFEE CUPPING PROFILE
SCORE: 86 /100
FLAVOUR: apricot, milk chocolate and cherry
AROMA: orange, pear, honey
ACIDITY: medium to high, sparkling
BODY: medium
AFTERTASTE: toffee apple.
As usual, we’ll sign off with the Ethiopian greeting and instruction: Buna Tete! (Drink Coffee!) Start the year as you mean to go on, with great coffee.