In the early days of Cape Coffee Beans, much of the best Ethiopian specialty coffee that we drank in South Africa was from the celebrated Yirgacheffe region, easily likened to the Champagne of coffee. After all, only coffees grown in the Yirgacheffe region bear the appellation, and it is recognised by coffee drinkers everywhere as producing some of the best lots in the world. Our friends at Rosetta Roastery have always had a talent for finding the best of the best from Yirgacheffe. That is as true today, as it was years ago when we started working with them.

Nevertheless, things have changed a little in the last few years. One of these changes is that we get to enjoy specialty coffees from other regions of Ethiopia much more often. The Guji Zone, where this coffee was grown, is one of those regions that has started to gain recognition as another important origin of extremely high-quality Ethiopian coffees, with similar but also different characteristics from the coffees from Yirgacheffe.

Guji offers the perfect combination of climate, elevation and rich soils, allowing it to produce coffees just as spectacular as those that come from the more celebrated Yirgacheffe. They also have many similar characteristics: delicate bodies, floral and tea-like notes, stone & citrus fruit flavours. Still, they are also subtly different.

This particular lot comes from the Gogugu washing station, the very first lot from this washing station that we've had at CCB. We're certainly looking forward to tasting it.

Phaedon's tasting notes

Interesting, surprising, flavourful, mercurial - these are some of the words that spring to mind when I'm thinking of how to describe this coffee. Each of my brewing notes read as if they're describing a completely different lot, but they're not! It was all the same coffee.

With my Chemex brew, I had the rather pleasant sense that I was drinking a cup of Earl Grey tea with a dash of milk (milk's ok with tea but I didn't actually put any in the cup). In my MoccaMaster brew, I found it quite peachy, with more of a green tea note. It reminded me of an Arizona iced tea from my days at university in Philadelphia. I don't even know if that beverage still exists or if anyone will understand the reference. In my moka pot brew, it bowled me over with big, bold cherry flavours.

Same coffee... I kid you not. It's as if Willy Wonka produced a coffee...

Try it for yourself. See if you agree.

Rosetta's notes

Style: Progressive
Flavour: Light with Rose & Hibiscus florals, White Peach & Grapefruit

These tend to be lighter bodied coffees, that forefront flavour nuances inherent to the specific bean.These coffees tend to have natural sweetness and distinctive aromatic properties. As a general guide, they'll be great brewed using any filter method. We'd recommend trying them black.

Be taken in by the unrivaled complexity of Ethiopian coffee. We are excited to feature a lot from the most recent harvest season, a coffee jam-packed with juicy grapefruit, crisp peach notes, and rose.

When roasting this coffee, we skip the extended development. A more aggressive, but short roast profile means a coffee light in body and vibrant in acidity; a perfect selection for filter drinkers.

Coffee details from Rosetta

Founded in 2019, Gogugu washing station is nestled in the Guji Zone of Uraga. The region is recognised as one of Ethiopia's highest-elevation coffee growing areas of, surpassing 2000m ASL.

The cherries of this lot were delivered from 450 of the surrounding farms with plots ranging from 0.5 to 2 hectares, showcasing approximately 1800 - 2400 coffee trees per hectare. These farms benefit from the fertile, red soil and abundant sunlight of the locale, and welcome refreshing, cold winds - a perfect recipe for exceptional coffee!

• Producers: Smallholder farmers of the Gogugu Washing Station
• Region: Guji Zone
• Country: Ethiopia
• Altitude: 1900 - 2000 masl
• Processing: Washed
• Variety: Wolisho, Dega
  
• Harvest: 2023