Bold Bean Coffee Roasters Yirgacheffe Kochere

Bold Bean Yirgacheffe Kochere

Most of the time a package of coffee from my Jacksonville, FL friends at Bold Bean Coffee Roasters means a selection of tasty Central and South American coffees, but every once in a while they sneak something into the rotation from Africa, too. I’ve had one Kenyan and one Ethiopian from Bold Bean in the past, so today I am excited to try a new washed Ethiopian coffee and share it with you dear readers! If you happened to miss the Cumbres de Poas review, check that out in the link below and then read on!

Bold Bean Coffee Roasters website

Buy this coffee directly for $16/12oz

Bold Bean Coffee Roasters Cumbres de Poas review


BOLD BEAN COFFEE ROASTERS YIRGACHEFFE KOCHERE

Today’s coffee is a washed Ethiopian selection coming from the Jet washing station in Kochere. Kochere is located in the Gedeo Zone, along with the town of Yirgacheffe, and it’s the literal birthplace of coffee! Since most Ethiopian growers have small farms of an average size of a half hectare, they typically pool their coffees with other members of their co-op, the coffees are mixed and sorted, and then processed by the washing station. Because of the thousands of coffee varieties growing in Ethiopia, they are generally labeled by roasters as “heirloom” because nobody has time to name them all! This selection was grown around 2100 meters above sea level and I found the beans to be dense and heavy in the pourover, so plan on adding a good amount of agitation to keep the extraction going.

As always, I used my 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino with Kalita 185 filters. Bold Bean gives us tasting notes of, “Gummy peach rings, honeysuckle, apricot” which sounds damn awesome, so let’s see! From the brew bed and the cup after brewing I was getting a lot of floral aromas. I don’t smell enough flowers to be able to separate their aromas, but I did get notes similar to jasmine tea aromas and this was a great-smelling cup of coffee!

There was a little bit of a tea-like mouthfeel and flavor vibe going on in the cup, too, with a slightly dry finish and a light presence on the palate. The floral aftertaste was accompanied by a somewhat dry finish on my tongue, reminding me of tea. There are definitely some peach notes to be found in this cup along with lots of bottom-heavy sweetness to anchor this otherwise light coffee and keep it from floating away. I get some mild hints of lemon in the acidity to balance out the sweetness, but unlike a lot of washed Yirgs the acidity is there to complement the flavors, rather than take a starring role. Overall, this is a nicely balanced, clean coffee that has the elements I love in a washed Ethiopian cup without being too light/watery or tea-like. Bold Bean’s in-house coffee cuppers all scored this coffee a 91, and it’s easy to see why. Delicious, light, sweet, clean… what more can I ask for?