May’s White Label comes from the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia, where legend has it that a thousand years a goatherd named Kaldi first discovered the energizing properties of the coffee fruit and its roasted seed after observing how excitedly his goats behaved when they ate the cherries from coffee plants growing wild. Ethiopian coffees remain famous to this day for the unique cup character of the myriad heirloom varieties that still flourish throughout the country. 

At Fonte, we regularly feature dry processed Ethiopian coffees for the intense, thick, and sometimes rustic flavors of chocolate, cinnamon, and blueberry these coffees bring to the cup. This month we explore the equally compelling flip side of Ethiopian coffee—the brighter, more delicate and nuanced floral, herbal, and fruit flavors that wet processing can coax from these historic seeds.  

The wet processed Ethiopian coffee we offer here is comprised of native heirloom cultivars grown by farmers of the Hamasho village nestled over 7,200 feet above sea level in the Bombe Mountains in one of the three major growing regions of the country, Sidamo. This is among the highest altitude of any coffee grown in Ethiopia, contributing to slower plant maturation and more gradual development of the cherries which can help create complexities and subtleties not often found in coffees grown at lower altitudes. After harvest, the cherries from these local plants were processed in town at the Bensa Hamasho washing station. 

We love this lot from Hamasho because while it delivers the more delicate and refined herbal/floral and fruit flavors typical of great washed Ethiopian coffees, it presents them so prominently they become impossible to overlook. In this regard, we feel Hamasho achieves an almost ideal balance of delicacy and assertiveness.   

Region: Sidamo 

Farm: smallholders in Hamasho village 

Altitude: 7200 feet 

Process:  washed, sun dried on raised beds