Ethiopia Hawisa Cooperative
Jimma is a coffee growing region in Ethiopia’s West that hasn’t garnered the attention of the Sidamo or Yirgacheffe regions. But there is great potential; our supplier has been working with the Hawisa cooperative and the results are completely delicious!
Hawisa is grown by 235 cooperative members under partial forest cover at around 1650m asl. The producers are very much small-holders – average production per member is 150kg which equates to around one acre of land each.
There is a communal washing station where the cherries are pulped, fermented under water for 10 hours and then washed. They are then partially dried in the shade for 4-6 hours before being fully sun-dried on raised beds for 10 days.
These are quite specific processing conditions, and the results show in the cup! This is a complex and sweet coffee, with lovely fruity and floral notes.
Roast Level:
Definitely a bean that needs a gentle hand in the roaster to preserve all those amazing aromatics. We roast this to 212-213ºC in our Diedrich IR-12 which is on the light side of our espresso roast levels.
Cupping Notes:
Aroma: lavender, zesty, bergamot, caramel, spices, brown sugar. Sweetness: dark caramel, hint of roasted vegies (!), dark choc. Acidity: white wine, orange, peppery.
Overall Impression:
Sweet caramel, bitter orange, rose/lavender florals. Really complex coffee, yet still very approachable.
Hawisa is our feature coffee for June 2012, and will be featuring in our Reserve Blend for winter 2012. It can be purchased from our online shop.
Comments are closed.