ReAnimator Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Shoye

ReAnimator Shoye

The last of my samples from my new friends in Philadelphia, ReAnimator Coffee Roasters, is here. Sad day, but what a great coffee I get to share with you! Today’s coffee is ReAnimator’s first fresh crop Ethiopian of the season. ReAnimator’s Shoye coffee comes from Sidamo, where Yirgachefe can also be found, in the south of Ethiopia. You can (and should!) buy this coffee directly from ReAnimator for $19/12oz bag.

Shoye is a cooperative of farmers located in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia. Along with Guji and Yirgachefe, the Sidamo region is most famous for bright, tea-like washed coffees. This particular selection is a washed coffee containing heirloom varietals (who’s going to name the thousands of varieties to be found growing in Ethiopia, coffee’s birthplace?). ReAnimator offer us tasting notes of, “oolong tea, peach blossom, floral, refreshing” and say the coffee “shines with floral green tea character , balanced with bright limeade and sugary peach.” Sounds good!

I used my usual 1:16 ratio (38g of coffee, 450g water) in the notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita 185 filters and a 3:45 total brew time for my cups. I wasn’t getting much more than “sweet” from the aroma until the cup cooled a little, and then it picked up nice floral notes. I got some lime in the aroma, too, which I hoped I’d find in the coffee itself, too. This was a medium-bodied coffee with a neutral finish and average length of aftertaste. Some washed Sidamo coffees can be really light and tremendously tea-like, so I liked this one with a little more substance to it.

I did get definite green tea notes in the second half of the sip. The florals from the aroma were present in the finish and aftertaste, and overall there was a bit of tea character there, too. I found the cup to be sweet, clean and balanced with nice complexity from the florals and tea notes. As the cup cooled a bit I got definite lime acidity and hints of peach throughout, too. I really noticed how deep the flavors seemed to be in this Shoye. This coffee just really seemed to drill into my palate and I really liked that. As I said, these washed southern Ethiopian coffees can be really light and while this one had some subtlety and its flavors were somewhat delicate, they really seemed to hit my palate with some weight, too. I loved this one… a third wonderful coffee from ReAnimator. I see why they’ve made such a big impression on the specialty coffee scene in such a short period of time. Awesome roasting and great selections, too! I look forward to trying some more of ReAnimator’s coffee in the future!