Ethiopia Habtamu Fikadu Washed 74110, 74112
Tastes Like: 
Pomegranate, White Peach, Makrut Lime, Honeysuckle
Origin: Guji, Ethiopia
Variety: 74110, 74112
Producer: Habtamu Fikadu Aga
Elevation: 2000 masl
Process: Washed
Habtamu Fikadu Aga runs Kuri Mountain Coffee, an operation that started with a single inherited farm. Founded in 2015 by Aaga Dinsa, grandson of a coffee farmer in Kuri Kebele, the company has grown to 837 hectares across Wolega, Guji, and Jimma, most of it belonging to the 144 registered outgrowers who deliver cherry to its washing stations. This lot is traceable to 140 smallholders around the Chelbesa washing station in Guji, farming at 2,000 meters and above. The company puts $0.12 per pound of exports plus 5% of its profits into a local development fund: schools, roads, food, health care. Until 2017 their coffee moved through the national auction, where lots lose their names. Now they export directly, which is why we can tell you exactly whose coffee this is.
Honeysuckle opens it, a white floral lift that's there before you sip. The cup runs juicy and bright: pomegranate's tart red-fruit sparkle up front, white peach carrying the sweetness through the middle. Makrut lime is the note that stops you. Not plain citrus, but that fragrant, almost perfumed zest that lingers into a clean, delicate finish. Light body, high clarity, everything in focus.
74110 and 74112 are named varieties. Both were selected in 1974by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center from wild trees in the forests of western Ethiopia, chosen for their resistance to coffee berry disease. 74110 traces to a single tree near Bishari village; 74112 comes from the same Metu Bishari selections in the Illubabor Zone. The trees are short and compact, with small leaves and small cherries, and they carry the floral, tea-like character that made Ethiopian coffee famous in the first place.
The protocol is the same at every one of Kuri Mountain's washing stations, and the consistency shows. Cherries are pulped, then fermented fully submerged for 48 to 72 hours depending on temperature. After washing, the parchment soaks in clean water for another 12 hours before moving to raised beds, where it dries slowly over 10 to 12 days. Nothing experimental, nothing rushed. A washed process this disciplined gets out of the coffee's way, and with fruit from 2000masl, that's exactly what you want.