This season we have had the opportunity to present customers with two coffees from one of our favorite coffee growing countries: Ethiopia. Although it’s not a very large country, the diversity amongst Ethiopia’s coffee growing regions is immense. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and there are thousands of varietals, all raised by different hands and with different methods.

There are a myriad of variables once the bean is actually in the soil that affect its eventual distinctive characteristics and overall quality. Some major variables include altitude, amount of sunlight, and rainfall. Farming techniques, such as reduction in or elimination of the pesticides used, also effect the beans. The location of the crop, when coffee fruit is made, processing after the fruit has been harvested, and how well the final green bean product is preserved while waiting to reach your roaster also all come into play when understanding a coffee bean’s journey from crop to cup.

All of these different aspects could be expanded upon forever. In this blog, I’d like to focus on processing, being that processing is the main difference in our two offerings that make them unique from one another.

Our Ethiopia from the Adado region is processed using a “washed” process. This means that after the coffee cherry is picked, the beans are removed and the fruity pulp is washed off before the beans are dried. This lends to a cleaner, generally more floral cup. In Coffee Hound’s Adado, you can look forward to flavors of lemon, apricot chocolate, with a clean finish.

Natural processed coffees are also picked, but the fruit mucilage is left on the bean to dry. The fact that the cherry dries out on the bean leaves natural processed coffees to often be intensely fruity and generally have heavier bodies. In our Ethiopia Konga Natural, you can look forward to a cup that tastes like chocolate covered strawberries and jam.