🇪🇹 Wolde Hirbe

If you want to understand what natural processing does, drink this next to the Aricha washed lot. Same country, similar altitude, heirloom varieties in both. Almost everything separating them in the cup comes down to what happened in the first week after picking.

Raised beds, and why they matter

Natural process means the cherry dries whole, fruit still attached, and the seed takes on flavour from the pulp fermenting around it. Done badly this produces mould, over-ferment, and a cup that tastes like compost. Done well it produces the most intensely fruited coffee on earth.

The difference is almost entirely airflow and attention. Wolde Hirbe dries on raised beds rather than patios, so air moves under the cherry as well as over it, and the lot gets turned by hand through the day to keep the drying even. It takes two to three weeks instead of the several days a washed lot needs.

What it tastes like

Blueberry, unmistakably: the note everyone reaches for with Ethiopian naturals, and for once it’s accurate. Behind it a fermented, almost red-wine quality, plenty of floral lift, and a syrupy body that coats more than a washed coffee ever does. Acidity is present but wrapped in sweetness rather than sitting on top.

How we roast it

Light-medium, with more development than we give the Gesha. Naturals carry more sugar into the roaster and can turn ashy fast if you rush the back half, so we stretch the Maillard phase and drop it about 45 seconds past first crack. That’s enough to round the ferment off without flattening the fruit.

Brewing it

Forgiving, which makes it a good coffee to learn on. Excellent in a French press where the syrupy body has somewhere to go. In a pour-over, use a slightly coarser grind than you’d expect. The fruit reads as sweeter when you stop short of full extraction.