Ethiopian Suke Quto Natural One Roast
Ethiopian Suke Quto Private Estate Natural.
Last week, we received our Ethiopian Suke Quto for the year. We have been lucky enough to ship this with our old friends at Monmouth. I am a fan of buying from the same producers year after year, as we also need customers to buy our coffee every year or we are in trouble! In some ways, when there is a sizeable producer, it is no bad thing to see the same coffees sold in different places. There will always be differences. Sometimes we save a pallet of Suke Quto natural, as it can improve and sweeten as it settles down.
As natural process coffees go, this is juicy and complex and up there with the very best and I am delighted that it’s here once again.
Top Trumps
Suke Quto Farm is in the Guji, area of Ethiopia
Producers: Tesfaye Bekele and 171 other smallholder farmers over a 220 Hectare area (approximately)
Varietals: Kurume and Welicho and heirloom varietals
Altitude: Grown 1800-2200 Meters above sea level.
Process; Natural
Roast: One Roast
Cup potential:🥣
|Aromatics: Grapefruit Tropical |Body: Light, creamy on cooling | Acidity: Stonefruit, passionfruit, tropical, citric.|
On the front end, there is a big honey-like sweetness and a citric finish. As soon as the liquor starts to cool, the magic starts to happen. The fruit becomes sherried, with layers of soft sweet grapefruit and passionfruit. Deeply complex, floral with a little lime curd and citrus linger. As things cool right down the levels of complexity unravel. On cooling, the acidity sweetens and dries simultaneously. The citrus is overruled by ripe purple fruit sugars that finish together with black tea and citrus linger.
Recipes:
Filter
Filter brews, with filtered water and fresh burrs, work nicely from 60g per liter and it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
We have called this a filter roast, however, it can brew in espresso. For this to work, think of longer extractions, and if going anywhere near milk, best to keep the drinks small.
Espresso
Milk-based drinks.
16-17g of coffee 34-35g of espresso in 27-32 seconds seems to work well in milk-based drinks. 94C and above to get the best ripe/ boozy elements of the coffee and keeping the drinks smaller 5-6 oz will be best. With some effort and a good grinder, you can get this to cut through a 9oz. I wasn’t expecting a lot but was hit with sweet florals on the front, followed by ripeness and much lactic sweetness.
Espresso
For long blacks or espresso, 15-17g of coffee and 45-60g of espresso liquid. Don’t stress about the exact seconds, but I have enjoyed the range of 30-40 seconds. If you think about it that’s quite a range of coffee and liquid volumes and time. Every machine setup is slightly different and this is a rough guide.
Farm Stuff
Tesfaye grew up in a coffee family in the Shakisso Valley of Guji known more for cattle than coffee. Years later, Tesfaye returned to his home area, employed by the Ethiopian government as a Natural resource and Environmental protection officer. Between 1997 and 1999, 5000 Acres of forestry were devasted by fire and there was no education program to explain and avoid another time. Tesfaye had a mission to rebuild or regrow the area that was formerly forestry and show people in the area how. Part of the re-growing activity was to start growing coffee, to add to the diversity, which was the beginning. The uptake, to grow coffee was low, as the idea of waiting 4 or 5 years for any sort of return was not appealing. Tesfaye gave up his day job and started to grow coffee. When Tesfaye started to crop, other people followed and he supplied them with seedlings. You can read the whole story HERE, written by our friends at Trabocca.
Are you, like me a BIG Suke Quto fan? Share your brews with us (if you like!) @JGInsta
