Hailing from Sidama, Ethiopia, our newest Crème de la Crème release is a coffee we’ve been looking forward
to releasing all year long. Sourced from our friends Steve and Ashenafi of Unravel Coffee (formerly of
Ninety Plus). The Unravel team is world-renowned for producing first-class Ethiopian coffees. They have a
technical team at the farm level that guides the coffee through an experimental process.
This particular coffee was inspired by the rising trend of co-fermented coffees; Steve and Ashenafi wanted
to explore a similar approach but with a unique twist. Only using components of the coffee cherry, they
developed a cold carbonic process which involves placing mature coffee cherries inside stainless steel
containers with clean water and injecting carbon dioxide into the tank to dramatically slow down the
breakdown of sugars from the mucilage. Next, they inoculated it with a local yeast to speed up fermentation.
The coffees were held in the carbonic state for 120 hours then brought to traditional Ethiopian drying beds,
one layer thick for the first 48 hours, then 2-3 layers with hand stirring every few hours in a shade-stable
drying environment for the first 5 days. This creates even drying for consistency. The total drying target
time is 36-40 days.
What that translates to is a bright, fruit forward taste profile with notes of pineapple, dark chocolate,
and red plum. A coffee that makes us take a second look, hoping there’s another sip at the bottom of the
cup.
How to Brew It:
This coffee will perform best using filter methods to achieve the best flavor clarity. For more body, but
with slightly less flavor clarity, use immersion methods. We recommend brewing at a 1:15 coffee to water
ratio with a brew temperature of 200-205 degrees.
