Coffee Collective - Bekele

From Coffee Collective’s roastery this month, we are featuring a beautiful Ethiopian coffee. The Ethiopian harvest runs from October to January each year. While in North America we typically see Ethiopian coffee later in the year due to purchasing cycles, Coffee Collective was able to secure this lot from Bekele Karchara of the Murago area of Sidama quite early. Harvested in November, this crop is sweet, fresh, and full-bodied. With a strong aroma of peach and strawberry, its tasting notes include Strawberry Candy, Pineapple, Papaya, and Peach Tea.

Bekele Karchara runs several small coffee processing sites in the same area. This coffee comes from his highest site, where coffee is grown and processed at 2350 MASL. Because the air is thin at this altitude and the temperature cooler, the cherries develop very slowly. This results in a complex coffee with tons of fruity aroma. Everything here is produced without electricity or water, with native trees planted everywhere to minimally impact nature. Bekele works with both his own coffees and those of 75 other local farmers. He has been around coffee since childhood, as his parents were also coffee farmers (but from the lowlands).

Brew Recipe for the Ethiopian Coffee

For this natural process coffee, I’ve been loving a small brew with a finer grind size to really maximize those Strawberry Candy flavors that I adore. Try it out!

• Coffee: 12.5g, medium-fine grind

• Equipment: Origami Air Dripper (plastic), Kalita 155 filters

• Water: 210ml total, 93°C, with a PPM of 65 (40ppm magnesium, 10ppm potassium, 10ppm sodium)

• Brew Ratio: 1:16

• Pouring:

  • 0:00: Pour 50g of water over 7 seconds, saturating the entire bed of coffee (light agitation to follow).

  • 0:30: Pour 50g of water over 7 seconds in a large circular pour (light agitation to follow).

  • 1:10: Pour 50g of water over 7 seconds in a large circular pour (light agitation to follow).

  • 1:50: Pour 60g of water over 10 seconds in a small center spiral (no agitation after the last pour).

If ground properly, this brew should fully drain by 2:40-2:55.