​1º THE DENSITY OF THE LOT

During the washing process, there are many more opportunities for selection and grading than in the natural process. Although, lately in origins such as Ethiopia and Burundi, where there are cooperatives focusing on quality, they have begun to introduce hand selection and flotation grading, prior to the drying of the cherries on patios or African beds.

This "lack" of selection and grading during the dry process, generates big differences in the density, moisture content, sugar content and cellular structure of the beans of a certain lot.
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Therefore, to obtain consistent results during your roasting, it will be necessary to adjust your profile, which should be different from the one you use for high altitude washed coffees, and also different from the one you use for Brazilians naturals, since these beans are less dense than those from Ethiopia or Burundi for example.

​2º METABOLIC EVENTS THAT OCCUR IN THE BEAN DURING DP

During the dry process, a series of important metabolic events occurs within the bean that are almost imperceptible to the human eye, but very much to the taste buds!

In the cell wall structure of the bean, there is a significant mutation of organic and inorganic compounds, a migration of low molecular weight sugars (such as sucrose, glucose and fructose), and a relative (but not absolute) increase of polysaccharides and acetic acid.

​3º PRACTICAL ASPECTS TO CONSIDER

- Start your roast with a lower charge temperature. (25% less than  what you use your high-density washed profile is a good starting point)
- Try to stretch the drying stage, so you can "thermally align" the whole batch.
- Reduce the amount of energy input (with air flow and/or gas) when the crack begins, but without extending its development for more than 1.30 min.

We hope this article become useful and let us know in the comments what is your experience roasting natural coffees from Ethiopia or Burundi!

From a botanical point of view, the definition of an heirloom variety establishes that this must be open-pollinated. Arabica coffee is a self-pollinated crop, so from the very beginning the definition of heirloom doesn’t apply to Arabica coffee.

For many years in the coffee industry, the word Heirloom has been used as a generic term to describe one or a group of unknown cultivated varieties in a particular lot, farm or region, that over a long period of time has been planted and passed from a coffee farmer to the next.

​Since the Specialty Coffee movement started to rise in western countries, there was an obvious necessity for traceability and more information. Although the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC), has been working since the 70’s in researching and developing new varieties, at the time, importers had very little information to describe the varieties of the coffees they were buying from Ethiopia.

Today, thanks to scientists such as Getu Bekele, who have been studying Ethiopian wild and cultivated varieties for decades, we can learn, recognize and differentiate, two big groups of Ethiopian Coffee Varieties: the Regional Landraces and the JARC improved.

​There are between 6.000 to 10.000 Regional Landraces and the JARC has developed around 40 improved varieties, which has been distributed among farmers all over the country. These improved varieties address issues of CBD, leaf rust, cup quality and yielding, and today, are widely used all over the coffee growing regions in Ethiopia.

For example, if we analyzed the Jimma Region, we can learn that the improved varieties of the area belong to the Metu Bishari Selection of 1974/75 including: 74110, 74112, 74140, 74148 & 74165 varieties. The Regional Landraces found in this area will include: Kuburi, Bedessa, Yawan and Dalacha among others.

Also, there will be a specific and different set of improved varieties and Regional Landraces found in Yirgachefe/Sidamo, Harar, Gera and Walaga.

If you want to know more about this very interesting topic, check Getu’s book, “A Reference Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Varieties”.

And last but not least, enjoy your Ethiopian Coffee with full traceability 😊

​In producing countries (which are almost all very poor), coffee is a fundamental part of the life of its inhabitants and the country's Gross Domestic Product. Therefore, the future and decisions of the coffee industry will always be influenced by a more general vision of a group of politicians, who without having the expertise or without seeking proper advice, decide what "they believe best" for a group of people or coffee farmers, which are ultimately the "heart" that pumps the money into the economy of a coffee producing country.

This is the case of Ethiopia, where the country's majority ethnic group the Oromos (who are mostly coffee producers and farmers), have been at the center of chaos for the past three years, staging violent protests against the central government (led by the minority Tigray ethnic group) accusing them of marginalize Oromos from the rapid economic growth of the country and constant violation of human rights.

​Last month, Hailemariam Desalegn unexpectedly resigned to his post as prime minister, saying that his resignation "was vital to carry out the reforms that Ethiopia needs to have a sustainable and peaceful democracy". A few days ago, Abiy Ahmed was appointed as new Prime Minister. This 42 year old Oromo, born in the coffee town of Agaro, very close to Limmu, has great support from the younger generations of Oromos and also from other ethnic groups.

​We are following very closely the development of the conflict, the lifting of the state of emergency and the general political situation in Ethiopia; If everything goes well, we hope to receive our first shipment of the last crop 2017/18 in Barcelona next June.

To understand the coffee industry of a country, it is essential to understand its political situation and history. Enjoy your coffee!

​The history of coffee in Indonesia, as in many others producing countries around the world, begins with tales of colonialism, slavery, monopoly and multinational corporations (Yes! The first ones of modern history were set in the early 17th century).

In the year 1602 the Dutch government established the “Dutch East India Company” (VOC; Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie) as a chartered company and granted it a 21-year monopoly on the Dutch spice trade. This was the first model of what we consider today a multinational corporation.

​In the year 1616 the Dutch East India Company started with coffee trading in Mocha (Yemen), and during the first half of the 17th century, they only traded coffee in the Arab world and Asia, because there was no demand for coffee in Europe at that time.

During the late 17th century, coffeehouses spread all over Europe and the Dutch, English and French started to trade coffee from different Arab ports. The Arabs had forbidden the trade coffee in fertile beans or plants, of course, they wanted to keep their monopoly, but when coffee became very popular in Europe around the 1690, and political problems in the Arab countries threatened coffee imports, different European countries tried to get coffee plants or seedlings for trading purposes.

​The race to make off with some live coffee trees or beans was eventually won by the Dutch. They obtained the coffee plants most likely in Malabar (India), where the Dutch East India Company ruled.

The coffee plants were introduced in Batavia (today Jakarta) Indonesia in 1696. In 1711 the first coffee exports were shipped from Java to Europe. The first coffee shipment was around 450 kg. Ten years later the export had already grown to 60.000 kg.

Originally coffee was cultivated only in Java, but in 1870, the Dutch expanded growing areas of Arabica to Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and Timor. In northern Sumatra, coffee was first cultivated near Lake Toba in 1888; and then in the Mountains of Gayo, near lake Tawar, by 1924.