Ethiopia Gesha Reserve

Gesha is a coffee variety with a long, thin bean and a cup that smells like a flower garden. It was first collected in the forests of south-west Ethiopia, and this lot grows not far from there, on Kontir Hill, where a group of 14 smallholders pick and process it together. Pieter tastes their lots every harvest and buys one: about 300 kg, which is the whole of what we offer for the year.

Thandi roasts it very light, in small batches, so the jasmine comes through. It is a coffee for a slow morning and a careful pour.

In the cup

Jasmine, bergamot, white peach. A light, tea-like body. The acidity is delicate and sweet, like a ripe peach, and the finish smells of flowers.

The details

• Origin: Ethiopia
• Region: Bench Sheko, South West Ethiopia
• Producer: the Kontir Hill smallholders
• Altitude: 1 900 to 2 050 m
• Process: washed, dried on raised beds for about three weeks
• Variety: Gesha
• Roast: very light, 1 of 5
• Bag: 200 g, whole bean or ground for filter

How we brew it

On a cone dripper, with a little more water than usual:

1. Grind 15 g of coffee medium-fine.
2. Heat 250 g of water to 92 °C (a ratio of 1:16.7).
3. Bloom with 45 g for 45 seconds.
4. Pour the rest in three slow pours and aim to finish at 3 minutes.

Let it cool for a few minutes before you drink it; the peach comes out as it cools.