Mama Carmen’s Yirgacheffe Kochere

Mama Carmen’s Coffee kicks serious butt. Every time they send me coffee I’m not only impressed by the coffee itself, but the depth of their commitment to making the world a better place. Mama Carmen’s, located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is named after a woman in Guatemala who has spent her life helping orphans. One of the ways she funds this venture is with a coffee farm that was gifted to her and this mission. This farm brought an Arkansas agronomist, Mark Bray (owner of Airship Coffee) to Guatemala and he is also a partner in Mama Carmen’s.[ref]http://www.arktimes.com/EatArkansas/archives/2015/09/15/mark-bray-of-airship-coffee-announces-collaboration-with-bentonville-brewing[/ref] Long story short, these are good people who like doing good work for other good people!

Profits from today’s coffee, Mama Carmen’s Yirgacheffe Kochere, goes toward the Ride for Korah campaign. Three people are riding cross country this summer to raise $50,000 through their I Pour Life team for the 10×10 Program which promotes empowerment, community, leadership and financial skills for the women of Korah, Ethiopia. You can buy this coffee directly from Mama Carmen’s for $16/12oz bag and support the Ride for Korah, too.

Let’s look at this wonderful coffee, now! This is a natural process coffee from Yirgacheffe with tasting notes of, “Blueberry, Meyer lemon, jasmine tea.” I used the AeroPress Stubby recipe as well as my usual 1:16 ratio in the notNeutral Gino pourover dripper and I really preferred the pourover for my cups. I use 28g of coffee and 450g of water with a total brew time of around 3:30-3:45.

The aroma is sweet with a hint of lime and a tiny bit of florals. In the warmer cup I found green tea with a slight hint of astringency that I get from a lot of teas and a lot of peachy sweetness in the cup. Peach notes in coffee are so good! The acidity in the warmer cup is pretty subtle and the coffee is shifted well toward the sweet side of the spectrum. As the cup cools the acidity opens up as a sweet lemon with just a hint of lime to it. Really delicious and it balances out the peach sweetness perfectly. Let the cup cool even more and the flavors shift away from peach and solidly into ripe strawberry territory with even more lemony brightness.

For a natural this is a balanced and clean cup with minimal ferment. There is a bit on the aftertaste, but this coffee is, in my opinion, more like a washed Yirgacheffe than a natural in a lot of ways. I absolutely loved this coffee and it’s one of the best Ethiopians I’ve had in a recent run of coffees from that country! Get it AND support Ride for Korah at the same time! Win-win!