Ethiopia Washed Banko Dhadato

Washed processed Yirgacheffe is the taste of sunshine, botanical gardens, and happiness. This is from Yirgacheffe, but more famously, the Fair Trade Banko Dhadato Co-operative (named from the village it is in) which is in the remote but specatular coffee growing Gedeb region.

Generally speaking, Yirgacheffe coffees have a floral and lemon flavor — sweet, juicy, bright, floral, black tea, citrus (think jasmine, lemondrop) -- and that holds true here. It's a soft, gentle coffee, with almost creamy body which makes it very easy to drink. You smell the sweet flowers as soon as you grind it. You taste flowers and lemon with a slight chocolate taste in the finish.

Best when roasted light, I follow the same profile as a natural Ethiopia, although being a washed process coffee, this Yirg takes just a little more heat to keep up with that roasting curve and it cracks a couple of degrees later, so it needs to be a couple degrees hotter before you let it out. I give it a full 15 minute roast. I barely take it past the first cracks though. Just after the first cracks come to a complete stop and you've slowed the roast way down, I turn the heat down to where the bean temp is just stalling out right around 400 degrees, and I'm done. There's no earthiness, and no defective tastes. However, if you want to roast this as more of a medium roast you totally can. Since it's a washed process coffee, you can take it as dark as you want. It holds its sweetness even though it will lose its complexity and acidity, somewhat falling flat.

I tend to strongly prefer natural processed Ethiopia coffee over washed processed ones, but this coffee is satisfying and makes me smile.

US Arrival September 2019