Novo Coffee

Addis Ababa Barista Championship

Traditional lever machines and layered Harar machiattos are everyday sights in Ethiopia's capitol city - now I've been assigned the exciting task of coordinating its first barista jams and competition. This week, a Jam site will be set up with 4 Rancilio lever machines and great single-origin Ethiopian espresso coffees. Every two weeks, baristas will gather to share their art and prepare for the championships in February, timed to run concurrent to the East African Fine Coffee Association Conference, maybe the most significant international coffee event yet. In early February, some of the world's finest barista trainers will show up to help participants make final preparations to compete with WBC protocol. It will be a pleasure and privilege to bring these great local barista artists together and to help them prepare to showcase their talents and unique approach on a world stage.

Rains in Yirgacheffe

When will the much anticipated micro-lot sun-dried natural process coffees arrive to Addis? The tasting room is set, spoons are in hand. But this year, the coffees are drying slowly due to unusual humidity and rains. Some of these coffees promise to be worth their weight in gold. Although unconventional to traditional coffee cuppers who screened out defects and still consider any unwashed coffee a fruity. defective cup; modern coffee tasters and lucky consumers have tasted the immensity of flavor that the fruit of the coffee cherry can impart to the seeds as it dries. I'm tasting these cherries every day as the lots slowly dry. Dried coffee fruit of perfectly ripe cherries tastes commonly of date and fig, and sometimes of leathery dried guava or a potpourri of other fruits. These aren't appoximations. These are real flavors that trigger a memory of something you've tasted in the past, or consumed recently, like the low-hanging ripe guava fruit outside my window. No wonder these seeds are already tantalizing to open-minded tasters. We've only just begun the discovery. I can't wait for all of these cherries to dry!

Crossing Paths with Madaline Albright

While walking with hurried pace to the Hilton in Addis to hook my Mac up to the only fast connection in the city, I thought about seconds gained or lost and how more or less time spent - skipping over that rock, tripping on the next - influences the unfolding chain of events that is the rest of each of our possible life outcomes. I hurried around the corner, through the gated security entrance, up to the front walkway, and met an arriving black Mercedes, the back door of which swung open and stepping into my path, two feet in front of me - Madaline Albright. Not that this was some huge twist of fate. But it was quite interesting. I acted like I belonged and walked slowly with her reception party, right behind her, and listened to the former Secretary of State as well-dressed men and women politely informed her of their altruistic plans for women's health projects in Ethiopia. Convincing lawmakers and others with influence that your cause deserves funding is a language I'm becoming all to familiar with in Ethiopia. My question is: why does so much of the aidwork action happen in fancy hotels? I suggest a meeting on the farms. Maybe Madaline would like to take a trip out to Idido with me and see whether farmers need handouts or partners. I think time will show that partnering with impovrished peoples may be the shortest and truest path to sustainability. I wish I had asked her to join a trip south. I wonder what she would have said. It would have been an interesting conversation.

2 Special Coffees Found

One realizes why he is tasting so much coffee far away in Ethiopia when special cups emerge from the mediocre masses. In this case, washed coffees, the likes of which I haven't tasted in some time. Specially prepared by a standout exporter, the better of the two lots was from his mill in the Harfusa area last year. The second, from his Idido mill, is another special prep. It's no coincidence that the cups standing above the rest had special handling all the way from the selection of ripe cherry to meticulously managed fermentation and milling. These two lots have been stored in parchment in climate controlled conditions in efforts to balance flavor, much like what is done with the lots Novo currently prepares in Panama. 90 points is becoming a score of stringent requirement for me. I have to be in love with the coffee for it to be 90. Above 90 is a question of how in love with it I am. I'm close to in love withthe Hafursa Special. The Idido has definitely caught my attention as well. During the ECAFE Competition, I would have scored both of these coffees over 90. But 90 points now, after tasting thousands of cups and knowing what is really possible in Ethiopia, will not be taken lightly.

Our Hache, last year a 91 for me, I'd now give 89. It's wonderful, but not as refined as it could be. The bar is being raised, and 90 is no joke.

In summary:

Hafursa (89.5) - Lemon citrus, jasmine floral, medium caramelly body, lingering floral aftertaste, very stable from hot to cool.

Idido (88) - Lemon-tangerine citrus, lacks floral, slight cinnamon, tangy, doesn't finish like Hafursa, less complex, but very pure, brilliantly bright.

They're the best washed southern Ethiopian coffees I've tasted in some time. If all goes well in the next few days with extensive final sorting and final tasting screenings, they'll be vacuum packed and on the way to the U.S. by next week.