Heart & Graft Coffee Roastery: Chateau 76: Ethiopia Bonde Kochere: Washed

What a coffee! This stunning multi layered, incredibly well structured coffee is an absolute prime example of the Chateau 76 archetype, both elegant and satisfying.

If you are a fan of complex, floral and sweet coffees, then this Ethiopian beauty is for you. The washed process allows all those tasty flavours to shine, in a supremely balanced cup. If you are new to brewing coffee, or never tried an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, you will find some remarkable flavours in this bag of potential!

We scored it 92.5 out of 100, which is one of the highest scores we’ve given a coffee. The joy is real.

It's the balance and clarity of this coffee that make it a star. We tasted it six days after roasting and it has opened out beautifully. You’re hit simultaneously with chamomile and orange blossom flavours carried on butterscotch and cocoa nib sweetness. It's like a perfectly made classic cocktail, with the floral hoppy citrus acidity, butterscotch sweetness and structured medium body lighting up your palate in one slurp. This balance makes for an excellent espresso or filter brew.

There's always a connection to the heart of coffee history with coffees from South East Ethiopia, as arabica originates from its Montane forests. Coffees from the Kochere region around Yirgacheffe have been held in special regard by coffee lovers for hundreds of years. The nutrient rich soil and hundreds of wild coffee varietals provide us with a coffee bursting with potential flavours to get at in the roast.

The coffee is grown between 1800 and 2100 metres, the cool temperatures allowing those precious cherries to grow and ripen slowly, intensifying the concentration of nutrients and sweetness, resulting in all that wonderful complexity in the cup. These dense beans are packed with compounds and sugars, so we give it lots of energy at the start of the start of the roast to unlock the magic, then ease back to draw out all that sweetness.