OQ Coffee Co.

Two years ago, our importer sent a representative to Ethiopia on February 17, 2010 to bid in Ethiopia's new Direct Specialty Trading platform.  Basically, nearly all of Ethiopia's coffee now goes anonymously through the privately owned, government warehoused Ethiopia Commodity Exchange.  In response to specialty coffee growers in Ethiopia and buyers abroad, however, the ECX developed a way for high-quality coffees to be sold on auction in a traceable and transparent way, the DST.  In fact, all results of the auction are published online, including the name of the grower, the buyer, exporter, and final green bean price; the farmers who grew it are guaranteed 80% of that final sales price!

Unfortunately, in 2011, the DST did not happen, but through the connections made with Nigusie at the DST, our importer was able to purchase the coffee directly.  In February, one of their team visited Ethiopia and met the whole family who produces Nigusie at their farm.  Lemma Edeto is the name of the owner who has been working in the coffee industry for 60 years.  Although his land was confiscated in the 1970's, Lemma Edeto is running the first coffee farm to be established in their area, which he and his sons Nigusie and Haile are running at what is probably the highest elevation farm in the district.  The farm is covered by shade trees and grown without the use of chemicals (though not certified organic).  The farm has multiple, undocumented varietals of coffee trees and abundant springs that supply the farm with plenty of water.

This coffee is amazing.  Everything else I say hereafter is a footnote to that.  It's dry-processed (natural, sun-dried), which means, as one of our cuppers put it, "Welcome to Berry-Town USA."  Pineapple, mango, plum: the list goes on; but, Nigusie is clean clean clean and has a nice complexity behind it's sweet punch.  It's got a punchy, lemony brightness that, though prominent, never overwhelms.  The body is like layers of silk and velvet, but definitely lighter than last year.  The finish is intriguing: somewhere between skittles and red wine (though not skittles in red wine).