Finca el Suelo Cultivar Blend

A sweet and delicate coffee reminiscent of nuts, flowers and white tea.

Tim's Notes

A few years ago, Khalid built a new washed mill on his farm. Thanks to this, he is now able to produce washed coffee, where previously he could only buy natural and honey process coffee. Interestingly, his washed coffee is much more flavorful and expressive, but at the same time more delicate and clean.

Last November, I was finally able to visit Khalid as the harvest was starting. The goal of the visit was to review his production process and work together to establish protocols to improve the quality of his coffee. As always, there were many details that had a big and small impact on the final quality, and we discussed some key improvements. Important ones included the individual separation of the coffee harvested each day, and the storage of each daily lot in sealed Grain Pro bags after drying. Other improvements included drying the coffee under shade nets, more thorough control of fermentation, and some minor changes to some of the processes.

This change allowed us to evaluate around 20 samples, representing each daily harvest, rather than just two or three combined samples as before. This eliminated low-quality lots and, combined with improved processing and drying methods, resulted in cleaner, more expressive coffees. This change was possible in such a short period of time thanks to the active support and constant supervision of the Belco team in Ethiopia and Fantanesh Keleme, who helped Khalid understand exactly the protocols we asked him to follow and applied them to all his coffees.

This year we also processed Ethiopian coffee in small dry mills and tried vacuum packaging for the first time, which helps a lot in maintaining the flavor and freshness of the coffee for a long time.

Washed coffee from Echemo has a very delicate and smooth taste, almost like drinking white tea, with subtle notes of peach and flowers. This is quite different from the typical Yirgacheffe or Guji coffees from southern Ethiopia, probably due to differences in cultivation area and variety.

Like Ethiopian coffee or Geisha varieties, this coffee tends to produce more fines when ground. This can clog paper filters when brewed with filter drip methods such as V60 or Kalita, which can lengthen extraction times. To prevent this, we recommend less shaking of the coffee bed during extraction, taking your time, and brewing slowly, rather than grinding coarser. This coffee will express richer flavor and sweetness even at high extraction yields.

Cultivar - Ethiopian heirloom from Coche forest
Flavour Notes - Floral, White tea & Stone fruits
Producer - Khalid Shifa
Country - Ethiopia
Region - Goma, Jimma
Process - Washed
Harvest - December 2023
Roast Profile - Light Roast
Contents - Whole Coffee Beans