Ethiopia Kochere Teklu Dembel
Ethiopia Kochere Teklu Dembel
Farm Description
We were very excited when we first cupped the offer and pre-ship samples of this unique wet-process Yirga cheffe coffee. Kochere has produced some of my favorite Yirg coffees in the past, with a highly aromatic cup and intense, lively brightness. I visited there early this year and it seems that the more remote locations from the main Southern road (the 6) have many of the old, heirloom Yirga Cheffe cultivars in production. It was prepared to Grade 1 standards, and comes from the Teklu Dembel washing station. This is located near Ch'elelek'tu town in the Kochere Woreda of Yirga Cheffe. The altitude ranges from 1800 to 2000 meters, with approximately 600 small holder farmers contributing to this lot.
This coffee is part of our Farm Gate pricing program.Cupping Notes
The aromatics are perfumed and floral, with bergamot citrus peel, honeysuckle blossom, berry and clover honey notes in the dry fragrance. With the addition of hot water, the same themes are continued, as well as fresh baked honey buns, melted butter and caramel. There is a unique accent of rue and coriander on the break. The cup is amazing, delicate, sweet, with strong retro-nasal aromatics. Flavors of jasmine, tangerine and caramel are accented by a grape-like acidity (tartaric), with vanilla, honey and floral perfumes. As it cools, new flavors emerge, with tangerine giving way to perfectly-ripe apple notes (Pink Lady came to mind!), with a touch of guava. Honeysuckle flower asserts itself in the aftertaste. We found that City to City+ roast was ideal, and too much development, approaching 2nd crack, resulted in a loss of these precious flavors and aromas.
Score
Lot Size
Roast Recommendations
City to City+ is ideal, keep this one light.Processing
Varietal
Grade & Appearance
Packaging
Comments
#1 Jasmine Soda Pop
there's a potent lemon-lime soda sweetness on both the dry fragrance and aroma on the break. The body is fantastic, almost buttery in the C+ range, and tea-like but not mild - more like a darjeeling than a green tea, in the lighter roasts. But make no mistake, this coffee has a potent, potent jasmine - honeysuckle flavor throughout, especially as it cools, with a light syrupy sweetness, again reminiscent of a lemon-lime soda pop. The C+ roasts even show some blackberry notes for added character
#2 Flavor problems???
After 4 years of roasting this is the first time I have ever encountered a coffee like this. I nibble on the beans while roasting to get a sense of the direction my roasts are going in while roasting (a lame alternative to cuping, but it's the best I can do at the moment). The Ethiopia Kochere Teklu Dembel tastes amazing right out of the roaster. I roasted a couple batches at City-City+ and it's not intense at first but slower building and lives up to it's description and quality rating. It left me very excited to brew a cup. I brewed three pourovers in 3 consecutive days after roasting and also made cold pressed all with depressing results. The flavor seems to be very elusive. Has anybody else run into this problem? The best I've gotten is using a brew temp of about 205 and wait for the coffee to cool to almost room temp before getting much definition . Is there a narrow parametered sweet spot I'm missing in brewing or roasting? Any help would be very much appreciated!
#3 Kahito -perhaps it would be
Kahito -perhaps it would be helpful to know which flavors you are looking for in particular that you're not getting in the cup? I find the warm cup in a hario pour over to have a lot more cocoa than I would expect, but as it cools it becomes much more floral. I get much more forward flavors through my clever brews though. Your roasting parameters would also help us maybe figure out what could be the problem.
#4 Roasting
After posting my comment, I did get a batch that turned out very good. I might have an idea as to why it's been hard to get great results. I have an electric 1Kilo Toper Cafemino. It doesn't roast uniformly as I would like (even though I only fill it up to 75% capacity). Maybe it is my imagination, but roasting by heating element seems vastly inferior to gas. Unfortunately this roaster is very challenged with roast profiling and the only way I can reduce the heat at first crack is to turn off one or both of the heating elements. I can also introduce some air through the hopper drop lever and sampler, but they both seem to be bad ideas. That being said, this is the most sensitive coffee I have come across. Hmmm...I am now very curious to taste what a dynamic roaster like a Probat or Diedrich could bring out of this Yirga Cheffe.
#5 Amazing Coffee!
I have been enjoying this coffee for a week now using a Chemex, aeropress, and fetco. One of the best Ethiopian coffees I have tasted in a few years.
#6 Re: Roastng
Kahito, I have roasted on that machine before and was indeed frustrated. But I do think that you might be able to find a balance by making adjustments to the 2 things that you have the most control over, batch size and drop temp. You said that you were doing 75% capacity already, but hat does the roaster do at 60%. What temp do you currently charge the drum at? Finding the highest temp at which you can charge the drum without creating scorching could give you a little more boost. Or at a lower temp depending on what the problem could be. So glad you got a roast that you were happy with though. Darren, I totally agree.
#7 Re:Re: Roasting
I have not as of yet tried to roast less than 75% capacity. The drum, airflow, maybe even heating element placement, etc. seem to be poorly designed and at 75% some beans appear to roast more even and others like monsooned coffees (expanded and lighter weighted) very uneven. My gene cafe usually produces better results. As for drop temp, I was dropping at 151 Celsius. Total roast time was between 12-13.5 minutes. Do you find a shorter roast time to be preferable with this coffee? Since I am limited with my profiling if I raise the drop temp it will progress very quickly through 1st crack.
#8 I would maybe try to keep it
I would maybe try to keep it closer to 12, a slightly quicker first crack might help promote some of those brighter notes.
#9 Photos
I was wondering if there are any other photos of this area. One of my clients will be putting some on display as they talk about the coffee with their customers.
#10 re: photos
Lance, if you search the Sweet Maria's travelogues for Kochere, you can find some images from the area. We just ask of course that you credit the photos to Sweet Maria's. Thanks, hope that helps.
#11 Wow!
As if this coffee needed to prove itself as anything other than amazing. Cupped this yesterday at a Full City roast and it totally knocked my socks off. The body was lush and the honeysuckle and jasmine seemed to be even more pronounced. There was beautifully balanced citrus brightness throughout the palate, and the candy sweetness was off the charts. I was worried that going that deep with this coffee would cover up the stand out floral notes, but it just wasn't the case. Yes, this is an amazing coffee at a lighter roast, but I was very impressed with how it held the roast at Full City. Maybe just one pop of 2nd in the drum, nothing in the tray, and cooling is key.
#12 this coffee has a big range
I'm with you on the FC roasting Chris. Very helpful with the mouthfeel without sacrificing the delicacy of jasmine/floral notes. I enjoyed this coffee lightly roasted and it knocked my socks off as a city but there is no reason stop there. It can handle further development and actually became more complex as the roasting progressed.
We took it to the brink of second, a pop or two in the tray and gave it 48 hours of rest. It wasn't as bright as our earlier trial roasts but it wasn't lacking brightness either. An added praline dimension with a very nice gardenia/jasmine linger in the cooling cup/finish. In my market the FC profile will resonate with more of our customers and this was a knockout as a pour over cold brew.
Don't be afraid to roast coffee past first crack. I promise it won't kill you.