Coffee is an inherently outlying crop. It’s a plant with genetic roots firmly planted in the farthest flung reaches of mountainous Ethiopia. It’s in these places still, where coffee achieves its fullest potential. The small town of Koba is exactly this. Seated at the highest point in the Uraga District, Yabitu Koba is one of the most remote nooks in an already remote region. Many of the contributing producers to this lot deliver their cherry to the processing center via precipitous dirt roads on beasts of burden. A trip that is made all the more dangerous during the ever expanding rainy season. 

The producers here possess an ancestral wisdom of coffee growing that informs everything they do; including what plants to intercrop amongst the coffee trees to yield the best results. Fertile loamy soil proliferates, providing the plants with nutrition and drainage without the input of fertilizer. It’s as if coffee was meant to grow here.

This coffee rewards a patient sip. Its delicacy is not simplicity, but rather a euphony of deep  and citrus. The aroma is floral, evocative of an elegant perfume, or a spring flower. Flavors of sweet, complex lemon and mandarin orange drive the cup, with an acidity that brings a vividness to each fruit. The cup cools to have a deep sweetness that reminds me of the syrup left behind in a cup of fruit cocktail.