Artisan Roast: Ethiopia, Moges Mengesha, Washed

A change in the law in Ethiopia brings us the chance to showcase top-notch individual producers such as Moges Mengesha. This level of traceability is a new and exciting thing in Ethiopian coffee: before July 2017, all coffee had to be purchased through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), where it was often blended, making it difficult both to pin down exactly where the coffee came from, and to give credit to the producers.

We can trace Moges Mengesha's coffee right back to one hectare in the deep south of the Gedeo zone in the Yirga cheffe growing region. He grows three local landraces of Arabica - Kurume, Degu, Wolishu - all of which are common in the region.

Moges then uses a longer fermentation time of 32 hours due to the altitude of his farm. After fermenting, channelling and soaking over a period of three days the coffee is dried on raised beds (as with almost all coffee in the region). He delivers his red cherry to a coffee pulping station who keep lots like this separate.

This traditional processing, combined with the new layer of traceability, serves the coffee very well. At Artisan Roast we feel this coffee represents the exceptional quality produced in this area: it is bursting with notes of zesty bergamot, sweet white peach and perfumed florals.