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Ethiopia Keffa Wush Wush Black Honey
Like natural processed coffee but wish it had just a bit more brightness and balance? This Black Honey Wush Wush is for you. It's got notes of juicy sweet champagne grapes, luxurious clover honey, crisp orange peel and a dash of cardamom for good measure.
Unless you watch the coffee world as closely as we do, you’ve probably never heard of the little Ethiopian village of Wush Wush. If you have heard those two magical words, you might be thinking “Wait, isn’t Wush Wush a coffee variety, like Gesha?” Oh, it is and it’s named after the village where is was first identified, also known as Wushwush. Located in that little village is a washing station owned and operated by Dinkalem Ademe and his wife Sofiya who source their coffee from about 2500 smallholder farms in the surrounding area. All that coffee consists of naturally adapted heirloom varieties descended from the originally identified Wush Wush variety. That’s all a roundabout way of saying: this coffee is the real deal!
But wait, there’s more! The Ademes and their partners at Catalyst Trade have gone one step farther, applying Catalyst’s Black Honey process to this particular lot. Named for the sweet, sticky substance (known technically as “mucilage”) left behind on the beans during the early stages of processing, this process mixes the best of both worlds. You get some of the sweet, fruitiness of natural processing along with the crisp acidity and balance often found in fully washed processing. At risk of oversimplifying this complicated process, “Black Honey” means that as much mucilage as possible was left behind to dry on the beans. As the beans finish drying, the mucilage becomes increasingly darker and richer, turning the beans a characteristic splotchy black prior to milling. This is in comparison to Red and Yellow honey, which leave behind less and less mucilage respectively. You can expect that as the color changes from Yellow, to Red and finally to Black, the cup profile goes from resembling a washed coffee to being closer to the natural processed end of the spectrum.
So how’s the cup? Our first impression was just how clean this cup is for a honey processed coffee. It’s got vibrant acidity, a pleasant creamy texture and the flavors a surprisingly balanced while still being sweet and memorable. Exactly what you’d look for in a well-executed honey process! It’s got a clean and lively winey character, reminiscent of champagne grapes along with a heaping helping of luscious clover honey. We also noted zesty orange peel and just a hint of pleasant spiciness like cardamom. You won’t be able to set this cup down to for long!
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: December 23rd, 2022. Harvest year: 2022, packed in GrainPro
Acidity & Brightness: Vibrant and sweet
Balance & Finish: Moderately balanced and fairly clean finish
Body & Texture: Medium bodied and creamy
Flavors: Champagne grapes, clover honey, orange peel & black cardamom
Grade: Grade 1, grown at 1,850 to 1,950 masl
Processing: Black honey processed (see “Farm Bio” for more info), fermented for a short period of time, dried under shaded canopy on drying beds
Grower: 2500 smallholder farmers| Dinkalem Ademe’s washing station
Region: Wush Wush village, Ginbo District, Keffa Zone, Ethiopia
Varietals: 75/210 and 74/212, smaller quantities of 74/110 and 74/165 and local Landrace varieties, naturally adapted from the Wush Wush variety
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City (Light to medium)
Start at City (light) or just about 30 seconds into rolling first crack. From there, go a bit darker if desired, but find it best not to go any darker than Full City (Medium or after the end of first crack and before 2nd crack starts). Most folks will prefer a City + or at the tail end of first crack. Lighter roasts will have more tangy acidity while medium roasts will accentuate more body and rounded sweetness. Longer rest times are recommended (72+ hours) for optimal brewing performance.
Catalyst Trade - "Approximately 2500 smallholder farmers from the surrounding area bring their cherries to Dinkalem Ademe’s washing station, where the sign above the gate says, “GENALEM GEWYERO” —GOD IS GOOD”—a motto he and his wife, Sofiya have taken for their lives. Together they are a dynamic couple dedicated to helping their communities in every way. The outgrowers in the Ginbo district are smallholders, aka “garden farmers,” so called because most of them are producing coffee in the “garden” areas around their homes, and often harvesting cherries from coffee occurring naturally on the land where they live.
BLACK HONEY PROCESS For our Black Honey processed coffees, we calibrate the disc pulper to allow for greater control and speed of pulping, which we take very slowly. The primary goal here is to minimize parchment and seed damage while really maximizing the mucilage content intact before drying.
Following pulping, we ferment the parchment slated for Black Honey for a short period of time. Then the mucilage- heavy beans are moved to shaded drying beds, where we keep them slowly drying under a shade canopy with excellent airflow. The drying with shade adds 4 to 5 days overall drying time with this Black Honey and affords us a stable distribution of moisture content throughout the cellular structure, along with a dialed-in water activity (shade drying gives just a little more control than full sun-drying, though it can be a little tricky to cover the parchment at the right times). We find this strong uniformity in the drying of all the coffees is critical in a good honey process.
Black, Red and White honey are so called due to the color of the parchment. Black honey coffees carry characteristic black splotches from the heavy mucilage load. Red honeys are also splotched, but less so, with the splotches more red than black. White honey carries the least mucilage and is more yellow/white in hue over all.”
