This morning we’re back in Africa with, sadly, our last coffee from the excellent Radio Roasters Coffee in the Atlanta area. I’m still struggling that Radio Roasters is the side-gig/hobby of CNN’s Chip Grabow because the coffee is so good, the website is custom and professional, the aesthetic of the labeling and branding is awesome… but, here’s a year’s worth of links and let’s dive right into this coffee!
Purchase this coffee directly for $6/4oz or $15/12oz (and other sizes, too!)
Radio Roasters Coffee Colombia Finca El Placer review
Radio Roasters Coffee Burundi Kayanza review
RADIO ROASTERS COFFEE ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE BERITI
This morning’s coffee from Radio Roasters in Atlanta, GA is their current washed Ethiopian coffee, Beriti, from Yirgacheffe. Beriti is a micro-region of Yirgacheffe and in the past, this coffee has been a Radio Roasters favorite. There are an estimated 6,000-10,000 heirloom varieties of coffee growing in Ethiopia and since most coffees are purchased as lots from smallholder farmer cooperatives that pool harvests, as always, this is a mixed lot of heirlooms. Coffee grows around 2000masl in Beriti and this tends to produce tiny, dense beans, although Radio Roasters’ solidly medium roast on this coffee made it a cinch to grind with my Handground manual grinder!
Radio Roasters Coffee gives us flavor notes of, “Floral, with chocolate, lime tea notes.” I used my standard pourover setup for this coffee, using a 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita filter. My grinder was set to 3 and I used Third Wave Water in my brewing.
It’s funny thinking back how much I had to learn to like washed Ethiopian coffees, especially the often very light and tea-like Yirgacheffes! I absolutely love them now, and have for a long time, but early on in my reviewing days I just didn’t “get” them. LOL Oh, how times change! This coffee is light and definitely has tea notes, as washed Yirgs often do, but it’s also flavorful and sweet and the impeccable Ethiopian washing practices make for a crystal clear and clean coffee, too. I get floral notes on the aroma and the early sip is bright, floral, and sweet. The brightness is definitely citrus and definitely has lime notes in it, for me. Often, lime acidity, in my book, carries a healthy amount of bitterness with it, just like real lime, but in this coffee I am getting the flavors of lime without that bitter kick, which is nice. Radio Roasters’ medium roast on this coffee brings out a lot of caramel sugar notes and probably adds to the body of this cup. My biggest gripe with washed Yirgs is usually how watery and thin they can often be, but this one has nice body and mouthfeel, probably from those developed sugars. That helps give this coffee some substance on the palate and, as I said, beautiful sweetness in the cup. There is a little black tea character in the second half of the sip, finish and aftertaste.
This is a delicious coffee. It’s light, but also has nice substance and presence on the palate. It’s super sweet but balanced by a lime acidity that is perfect. There is some added complexity from the floral notes but yet this cup remains sweet, balanced, clean and super-inviting and delicious to drink. No wonder Radio Roasters calls this a favorite and Beriti coffees, as a whole, are sought after by many fans of Ethiopian coffees! WOW!