TASTING NOTES

Coffee tasting notes for Kawo Kamina, Ethiopia: raspberry, pineapple, rose

COFFEE BACKGROUND

This coffee hails from a farm called Kawo Kamina in western Ethiopia: the birthplace of Arabica coffee. Over the past four years, we shared many selections from Kawo Kamina, which utilized multiple processing methods to create particularly delicious offerings. These offerings showcased the beauty and the full, natural flavor of the coffee seed.

This year’s offering is processed in a style called Red Honey. The coffee cherries are partially depulped, with the outer layer of skin removed but much of the sticky fruit left intact. The coffee dries on raised beds, allowing the fruit to ferment and oxidize, turning the parchment a rich red. This process lends a delicate florality to the coffee.

Kawo Kamina’s remote location far from major roads makes it difficult to build the infrastructure that traditional washed processing requires. Red Honey processing is especially beneficial because it requires much less electricity and infrastructure than traditional washed processing. And the resulting coffee is delicious. 

Moplaco owns and operates Kawo Kamina farm in the Sheka Forest. We first met Heleanna Georgalis, owner of Moplaco, and visited her facility in Addis Ababa in 2018. That initial meeting showed us a company committed to intentionality and its people. Then, in 2020, we returned to Ethiopia and spent two days at Kawo Kamina learning about their processing and sustainable farming practice. Moplaco’s operations at Kawo Kamina continue to excite and entice us with the consistent quality of their coffee. The privilege of roasting coffees like this motivates our continuous pursuit of excellence in collaboration with our producer partners.

To read more about our perspective on sourcing Ethiopian coffee, visit our blog.