Ethiopia - Chelchele Espresso

We took the roasting team to the Nordic Approach spring cupping back in April, and this was one of the lots that was selected (as was Chelbesa) from those tables. A real classic Ethiopian natty, hitting all the marks for that Gedeb profile - we decided to book this lot in as a short run espresso focused lot. As much as we love roasting light, it's also sometimes fun to push a bit more roaster led influence to develop those weighty textures and heavier cup profile that suits a more classic espresso (or aero/french press etc). Where we find this coffee particularly shines is with milk - it's really more than the sum of its parts.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Espresso (or chunky batch)

Medium-Light: Profiled with Espresso in mind, we're stretching the overall roast time out longer than we might for a filter as well as significantly extending the end of roast period + end temperature. The goal with any coffee like this roasted for more classic styles of Espresso is to improve solubility, body, and blunt acidity without losing the more delicate notes or introducing any rough/roasty/harsh notes that can come with a hotter style of roasting.

Best Rested: 3+ Weeks

Filter: 64g/L, 92°C when fresh; 88°C when rested

Espresso: 18g/45g/24-28s

We're tasting: Big flavours as a straight spro - we're finding chocolate ganache and blood orange, morello cherry and honeycomb, and as it cools becoming like ripe strawberry, black tea and a hint of clove. In milk: this is where it shines, tastes like peach & vanilla jam

Traceability

The Story

One of the most classic misconceptions when it comes to Ethiopian washing stations is that for any given "name" there's only one station. Taking this very coffee - Chelchele - the station is named after the village area it resides in and collects cherry from. But it seems a rare concept to give a unique name to any particular station (and we also see this with smallholder farms) in Ethiopian coffee production, rather they're eponymous with the locale. The end result is that for any given notable region, there are often many, many stations sharing the same name, and Chelchele is no exception. It might be obvious to some but it was a bit of a lightbulb moment for us early in our coffee career to learn that two roasters could have "Banko Gutiti" on at the same time, and that while the would likely have a similar profile for a given processing step as it collects cherry from the same area, they could come from entirely different supply stations and supply chains.

What then separates the quality is both the care and attention to detail at these individual stations - how well is the coffee sorted on intake, how clean are the tanks, how well is the drying attended to, and then the individual quality control of the exporting groups - especially during milling, as well as ensuring lots remain traceable and separated through the process.

We've been enjoying coffees from Worka Chelchele throughout our time in coffee, and it feels nice to occasionally bring on an absolute classic to the range - we're looking forward to one day featuring Hunkute, and perhaps Thunguri from Kenya to really hit our personal nostalgia buttons. Sitting high up in the Gedeb micro-region (nestled between Yirgacheffe and Guji and distinct from both) this is high altitude classic Ethiopian production through and through. We often buy coffees with a twist - an extra value add step, a variety grown outside its usual place, something that tastes like a different country. Quite the opposite with this one - this is benchmark classic Eth natty, roasted more developed with Espresso in mind (but would probably pass as a filter roast back in the day)

Nordic Approach have sourced this coffee from the Tadesse Desta Business Group who run this particular Chelchele site. Founded by Tadesse Desta in 2003, this is a relatively large and established exporter, now exporting up to 400 containers of coffee a year, with vertical integration across the classic coffee regions and a well equipped dry mill in Addis.