TIM WENDELBOE - Echemo- Ethiopia - Washed - Heirloom

Tasting Notes: Floral, white tea & stone fruits
Origin: Goma, Jimma, Ethiopia
Producer: Khalid Shifa
Process: Washed
Varieties: Heirloom
Roast Profile: Light Roast
Roast Date: August 28, 2024

Tim Wendelboe Coffee Roasters is located in Oslo, Norway

From Tim Wendelboe

A sweet and delicate coffee with flavors reminiscent of stone fruit, flowers, and white tea.

Three years ago, Khalid built a new wet mill on his farm. He is now able to produce washed coffees whereas before we were only able to buy natural- and honey processed coffees from him. Interestingly I find his washed coffee to be much more expressive and flavourful with more of the classic citrus, stone fruit and floral flavours that is so common for the best Ethiopian coffees.

Having said that, this coffee has a slight less intense acidity compared to a lot of other washed Ethiopian coffees we have offered over the years. It is not a typical Yirgacheffe or Guji – like coffee, but that is probably because it is grown in a different area and are made up from different cultivars. The washed coffees from Echemo are very delicate and soft. I find it is like drinking a white tea with some nice notes of peach and florals.

 Like many Ethiopian and Geisha coffees, this coffee can produce a bit more fines (dust) during grinding which means it might clog your paper filter when brewing filter style like V60, Kalita or similar. Hence you might experience much longer brew times. My recommendation is to not grind coarser but rather try to agitate the slurry less while brewing and let it take some more time to finish. High extractions of this coffee only makes this coffee more aromatic and sweet.

Echemo

In an attempt to find a farmers we could start working more closely with in Ethiopia, we went on a trip in December 2018 to visit a handfull of farms in the western part of the country. Out of those visits we ended up buying from three different farms where Echemo is the smallest one of them.

Echemo is a 35 hectare coffee farm located at 2100 masl in Goma, Jimma , close to the town Agaro. It is owned and farmed by Khalid Shifa who inherited his farm from his Grandfather. 

Khalid is mainly growing old cultivars that was planted by his grandfather many years ago. When establishing the farm, Khalid’s grandfather selected seeds from wild coffee trees from the the nearby Coche forest and the trees he planted are still producing well today. Most of the old trees are so tall that you are literally walking underneath a canopy of coffee trees on the farm. Workers even have to climb the coffee trees in order to harvest the cherries. 

Khalid recently built a new wet mill on his farm. He is now able to produce washed coffees whereas before we were only able to buy natural- and honey processed coffees from him.

He also produces delicious honey on the farm with traditional bee hives that are placed high up in the canopy of the native trees on the farm.  Khalid is also planting new native trees in order to re-build the forest which used to be on his farm. The goal is to grow his coffee inside the forest so that the coffee trees will be shaded from the sun by natural shade and to preserve the land for future generations.