Chelchele | Ethiopia

TL;DR: From nearly a thousand farmers, this coffee offers all of the sweet, floraly goodness we all desire from coffee in Ethiopia. There’s not much else to say really, it’s just freakin’ delicious.

 

This coffee comes from the Chelchele washing station, which is in the kebele, or village, of Chelchele, in the words, or district, of Kochere, in the Yirgacheffe region.

Chelchele coffees tend to have a nice backbone of sweetness from toffee and/or soft nuts like almond, with a floral and citrus overtone.Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt.

Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult.

We do, however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing stations every year, through our export partners and their connections with mills and washing stations.

Typically farmers in this region don't have access to and therefore do not utilize fertilizers or pesticides in the production of coffee.

When we got to roasting this coffee we really wanted to highlight the stunning floral and citrus character that makes us fall for coffees like this year after year, so we kept things nice and light. A short and punchy roast, reduced “development time” but still plenty of heat to make sure you get loads of flavour in your cup.

 

We prefer our filter brews from a v60, but we won’t judge for use of anything at all to make yourself a coffee - even a (clean) sock.

 

Our recommended ratio when brewing filter coffee is 60g of coffee per litre of water. Simply scale this down, or up, for your desired size of brew.

 

With all methods, you’ll want: a grind size similar to granulated sugar, boiling water, and about 3 minutes of brewing time. This goes for v60, aeropress, plunger, and the (still hopefully clean) sock.

 

Our favourite recipe for v60:

• 20g of medium to coarsely ground coffee, it’ll feel a little like granulated sugar.
• Set your kettle to boil, and ready your socks to be rocked.
• We use a 60g bloom, with a swirl of the slurry to make sure it’s all wet. You can stir of that’s easier, just don’t rip the paper!
• After that, when your timer is at 45 seconds, add more water to a total of 200g, and swirl gently.
• Then finally at 1:15 on your timer, add the rest of your water, to 330g, and do one last little swirl.
• Wait till it drains through, roughly 3:30 is a good time, pour into your favourite mug, and let those socks be rocked.

 

If you’d like more info or tips, get in touch! hello@coreroasters.cc