June 2016 - Ethiopia Harrar, Coffee scoring process explained, New Arkadia beverages

Date Posted:5 June 2016 

Ethiopia Harrar (aka Dark Horse)

Anyone with more than a passing interest in coffee will know that there is something special about Ethiopia. History buffs may rebut this claim.......but Ethiopia truly is the "spiritual birthplace of coffee" and whilst Brazil is the volume bell-weather of our global market, it's fair to say that all eyes remain fixed on each crop from Ethiopia as these amazing, distinctive coffees are the key feature, an essential highlighter or in many cases the critical game-changer in any roaster's arsenal.
Technically, coffee originated in Yemen, but with that country devastated by civil wars, extreme weather conditions, incredibly difficult terrain, poor infrastructure and limited opportunities for trade and export, Yemen produces such a small quantity of coffee that the price and rarity make it rather impractical for commercial applications. Yemen coffees are intense, powerful and complex in ways that few origins can match.
Ethiopian coffees can share many similar characteristics to Yemen, however, Ethiopia has without doubt the broadest spectrum of flavour possibilities for any coffee producing country - there is literally no end of descriptors for Ethiopian coffees and it's the primary reason that Ethiopia captures the lion's share of the market's attention and more importantly imagination.
Within Ethiopia there are growing districts that have lent their names to the varietals that we are accustomed to seeing on labels in retail packs of coffee. Ethiopians are some of the oldest varietals and are often referred to as "heirloom".
The growing districts can produce amazingly diverse coffees ranging from fruity, winey, rustic attributes of the sundried processing to the black tea, oaky, lemony, honey, buttery characteristics of the washed coffees. One thing is for sure - Ethiopians punch way above their weight, like Kenyans and other African coffees they are intense with flavour and depending upon the processing method can produce incredible aromatics and body.
We have always collected a large range of Ethiopian coffees - Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Limu, Harrar, Djimmah, Lekempti, Bench and in many of these we have both the washed and the sundried at various times of the year.
The big challenge with Ethiopia (OK, I seem to be always repeating this every month for quality coffees) - demand always outstrips supply by a decent margin. As coffee is a long established ritual in Ethiopian culture, up to 40% or more of the harvest is consumed locally - making Ethiopia one of the lowest export ratios of any top tier coffee nation.
If you speak to Coffee brokers, their biggest constant year-round headache is Ethiopia - they can't get enough and more to the point the competition for the best lots is brutal. As a result, quality Ethiopian carry a price premium in the market - particularly high demand varietals such as Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Limu and when the crop is good Harrar.
Each year, the comparative quality of the Ethiopian coffee can vary dramatically as the terrain experiences greater influence from the prevailing weather during the growing periods. Issues like the drought last year affected cup qualities across the board.  Situations like that create anxious moments for coffee roasters relying upon fantastic Ethiopians to lift their blends.
Whilst Yirgacheffe commands the prestigious title "King of Coffees" and is widely regarded as the benchmark for quality in Ethiopia, there is one varietal that I often refer to as the "Dark Horse" - Harar.
Harar, along with Bench, Djimmah and Lekempti are the wild beasts of Ethiopia. When they are on the mark, they are literally untouchable in terms of complexity - bursting with flavour and rare characteristics from their sun dried processing.
Experienced roasters will often confess to having a long standing Love-Hate relationship with Harrar coffees. It's perhaps the most difficult and complex of all Ethiopian coffees to source, roast and sell in a commercial setting consistently over time as the lots have such diversity.
Many years ago, the best quality Harrar coffees were renown for Blueberry notes and to some extent we have witnessed a diminished element of blueberry over the last 10 years - some crops there is no hint of blueberry at all. Prized Harrar coffees are astonishing to drink as the blueberry element provides a delightfully zesty contrast to the caramels, chocolates and winey flavours - it's hard to describe in words how well it tastes.
The Harar region of Ethiopian (the common or universal spelling of the varietal known in the coffee world is Harrar) is located in an area that is a far way Eastern of all other Ethiopian growing districts. Harar is often referred to as an Island within Ethiopia - in ancient times walls were built around the city to protect it's trade commerce. Over time, Harar has constructed the highest number of Mosques per square meter of any city in the world. The terrain is mountainous, rugged, arid, difficult and the varietals are exclusively heirloom with some of the lowest yields in the world.
Due to these low yields, the price is high for select grades due to the labour intensive process of hand picking, sorting and processing - the effort involved to product a single kilo of coffee is incredible. It's for these reasons that in recent times coffee farmers in Ethiopia have been looking at alternative crops (non-coffee) that offer higher yields, lower labour effort and greater cash returns. It's disappointing to hear that future volumes of Ethiopian coffees are forecast to decline - certain to ensure Ethiopian coffees become a rare and more expensive commodity over time.
In 2015 we were hamstrung by dramatically lower imported volumes and rather average cup-qualities. Whilst this year it's better story, I still have this lingering question in my mind about "opening the floodgates" on a bean that is ridiculously difficult to replace at any time of the year.
We have customers who have purchased Harrar religiously for years and years - they won't drink anything else - just like those numerous Monsoon Malabar devotees, their coffee universe revolves around what they love and enjoy......so they stick to it. These customers appreciate the complex, explosion of flavours, incredible spice and the earthy, rustic, winey characteristics that Harrar does best.

• Flavour - sweet berries and cream up front.

• Acidity - winey, clean and balanced.

• Body - full and tending to bold.

• Finish - long with cocoa.

This lot is hand picked, hand sorted and dry processed - it works best with a lighter roast to preserve the fruit and I therefore roast this coffee with a gentle profile to protect the delicate bean structure of the heirloom varietal.
The roasted finish is uneven (variations is the size, shape and colour) therefore you should not be alarmed as it is normal part of the natural process of this unique and distinctive coffee.
There will be random pockets of Blueberry in this coffee. Why random ? well because of the small farm lots and the way in which the cherries are sorted, combined and graded at the Co-Ops there will be some degree of intermix undertaken at the bagging stage at Origin in Harar - so it's entirely normal to have this diversity and broad spectrum of flavour and finishes. Don't be surprised if one cup is slightly different to the next - that's the excitement and fun of Harrar.
Grab it here - HARRAR

What does that score mean ?

They do it in MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules and just about every other contest.
You may have stumbled across the occasional comment about a coffee scoring 85 points and wondered just what the heck they are shouting about.
Does it really mean the coffee is good or great, will it pass my own personal test of a nice or even a delightful coffee ?
Is it a score out of 100 or some other ambit scale with a meaning obscured to all except those secret wizards trading in raw coffee beans ?
Or did you think for a moment..hang on, why can't I buy or drink 100 point coffee - I certainly deserve it !
Well, the answers are not entirely straight forward or simple to explain - I have authored an article on this practice as it applies to the Australian commercial coffee market, but due to the risk of controversy, we have kept the content of this article as a Newsletter subscriber exclusive.

Cocoa and Coconut Blossom Drinking Chocolate 900g
A rich and delicious blend of 56% West African Cocoa, Chocolate Liquer and Organic Coconut Blossom Sugar. This is a premium drinking chocolate where the coconut blossom delicately balances the bittersweet element of the super-high cocoa. Available here - Drinking Chocolate Powders Online

GreenSpoon 250g
This 100% natural product is designed for those health conscious families seeking a quality Stevia-based sweetener. Suitable for diabetics, no nasty chemicals and a wonderful complement to your tea or coffee beverage. Also great for cooking. Around 165 serves per can.
Available here - GreenSpoon  .. We do not sell sweeteners anymore.

Dirty Chai 240g
Of course it had to happen - crossing an espresso with a chai tea!. The bittersweet infusion of the espresso, black tea and exotic spices makes for an interesting and refreshing beverage. 12 serves per can. Available here - Buy The Best Chai Powder

Chai Tea with Pomegranate 240g
This was a real surprise package. The fruitiness of the pomegranate works remarkably well with the traditional chai tea and spices. 12 serves per can. Available here - Chai with Pomegranate no longer available .. but we do have a green matcha chai tea powder here.

Coffee Subscription
Not new, but we have streamlined and simplified the Coffee Subscription service to reduce the variations down to a simple frequency and time frame. There is no more Black Lovers, Single Origin or Blends option (existing commitments will be honored for these styles) - just the high-end Connoisseur range. Since it's inception, our list of Subscribers has grown into a large group of avid devotees. As a product, we think it's become such a popular seller due to the extra efforts we go to in sourcing rare and exotic coffees. Subscription coffees are not available in our mycuppa store and I confess without a doubt the best part of my job is shopping for coffees to schedule in future month's subscription runs. No longer available, but we used to include many Limited Release Estate Coffee Beans

New crop arrivals
New season Guatemalans have hit the deck and as we have always come to expect, these are really superb, classy coffees.
New crop PNG's are being harvested at the moment for delivery in late July and we have something quite special booked up on forward arrival.
More fresh crop Ethiopians are on the water inbound next month along with Panama, Kenyans and more Central Americans from Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua.
We are really sweating on our Kenya coffee at the moment - it's flying out the door so quickly we are struggling to keep up. It was only a few months ago that I roasted Kenyans once or twice a week and now it's every single day. Kenya has jumped from #22 in February 2016 to #1 in April and May 2016 - in more than 9 years I've never seen such a rapid rise in demand for a Single Origin coffee.