Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, the dominance of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange cut buyers off from direct contact with producers for many years, not allowing for rewarding experimentation directly. Starting in 2008, all coffee leaving Ethiopia, with very few exceptions, had to be sold through the exchange, removing much of the traceability of lots exported from Ethiopia. Great quality was still available, but building relationships and securing the same coffee year after year was almost impossible.
The opening of regulations by the Ethiopian Government in 2017 has slowly led to a more liberal industry with more players and more variety. The Ethiopian coffee market is more colourful than ever, with producers being rewarded more and more directly for their work.
Anaerobic fermentation is one such example, having become significantly more popular, opening up new possibilities for the Ethiopian profile.
Guatemala
In Guatemala, the clean washed profile has proliferated and dominated for many years, and it is only recently, with the advent of small speciality-focussed supply chains, that variety in processing has been sought out and rewarded. These smaller companies have access to the niche high end roasters that value transparency, traceability and variety. They can then encourage these values with their network of producers, with the promise of higher value for their coffee.
Through this work, they can slowly change years of neo-colonial culture that commoditises coffee into a singular and uniform product labelled as ‘Guatemala’. More variety in processing and varietal is now possible and rewarded by the market, meaning that the Guatemalan market has more possibilities than ever before, with many more honey and natural lots available for example.
Chelbesa
This natural lot was processed at SNAP Coffee’s washing station in the village of Chelbesa, located in the Yirgacheffe region. During our trip to Ethiopia in February, we cupped several tables of excellent coffees from this year’s harvest at SNAP’s headquarters in Addis Ababa. Coffee for this lot was delivered by smallholders surrounding the village, before undergoing anaerobic processing with SNAP’s meticulous team.
Coffee cherries are first fermented in sealed tanks for 24 hours, before being placed on raised beds. The dry and hot conditions during harvest allow for careful and consistent control of natural drying, covering the drying beds with tarps during the most intense hours of sun to protect from damage and slow the drying. Coffee is turned often, and hand sorted at several stages during processing to ensure cleanliness.
This creates a very clean and rich expression in the cup, with more clarity than we find in many anaerobic Ethiopian lots.
In the case of Chelbesa, this creates a deep sweetness, reminiscent of overripe berries, underpinning the aromatic top notes we associate with Ethiopian coffees.
Nueva Montaña
Antonio Gonzalez’ farm in the Fraijanes region is a returning favourite, often standing out on the cupping table during our Guatemalan buying. Fraijanes is much further south than Huehuetenango, where many of the Guatemalan lots we buy are grown. The region lies much closer to the Guatemalan capital Guatemala City, so has felt the effects of urbanisation, with higher costs of production and rising land values leading to some difficulty in maintaining a profitable coffee farm.
Antonio’s farm, La Nueva Montaña, is a great example of the work that’s possible in the region, leading a move towards higher quality and differentiation in order to maintain his family business. Together with his wife Eby Samayoa, Antonio has worked particularly hard on improving processing; intentionally creating expressions in the cup through careful use of fermentation. For the future, they hope to improve their agronomic practices to match this work, but these changes take time, gradually honing a new approach and allowing plants to adjust over several harvest seasons. For now, they work to minimise environmental contamination, and share their experience with surrounding farmers, giving tips on removing reliance on chemical inputs, making sure they too can have a successful and profitable business.
This particular lot is of the Catuai varietal, a dwarf mutation of the popular Caturra. The experience of creating high end lots, like the Maracaturra we purchased previously, has trickled down, improving Antonio’s wider work with less exotic varietals.
This lot is a great example, pre-fermented in sealed plastic bags overnight for 14 hours, ready to be laid out on raised beds to dry the next day. The fermentation of this lot holds onto a juicy profile, with notes of ripe blueberry, finishing with rich brown sugar and dark chocolate.
It’s a privilege to travel for coffee.
Context adds so much to a coffee experience; not just the understanding of technical aspects of farming and producing coffee, but also the realities of running a coffee farm as a business. The decisions producers have to make in their businesses every day are heavily affected by culture and tradition, but also by legislation, economy and their access to market. Both of this month’s coffees are an example of the very real affect that the speciality coffee market is having at origin, changing the coffee landscape in countries across the world, for better or for worse.