I just got back from a long business trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana, so I figured there was no better way to start the week than with a nice natural coffee from Indiana roasters, S&W Craft Roasting! S&W are located in the small town of Coatesville, about 2.5 hours from where I was. A little too far to drop in and say hi!
Buy this coffee directly for $15.35/lb (16 oz, not 12 oz!)
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S&W CRAFT ROASTING ETHIOPIA GRADE 1 ARAMO NATURAL
Today’s coffee is a fair trade and organic natural from Aramo. I couldn’t find this town on a map, but I know Aramo is a village in the highlands of the Gedeo Zone not too far from Yirgacheffe. Given that most Ethiopian coffee farms are very small, most farmers join cooperatives to pool their crops and sell their lots. The Aramo co-op was founded in 1972 and then jointed the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in 2002. Aramo coffee may be coffee that is grown around Aramo, but it could also be coffee from other areas of the region that have their coffee processed at the Aramo washing station. You just never know!
S&W Craft Roasting do an awesome job with the coffees they roast, so I was pretty excited to get into this natural. It’s a Grade 1 selection, meaning a lot of care and diligent hand sorting went into the preparation of this coffee before the cherries were dried on elevated beds. Growing altitude for this selection is 1800-2000 meters above sea level and S&W says this coffee pulls well as espresso, too, and blends well with their Honduras COMSA coffee. When I get caught up on reviews I’ll definitely be pulling this as espresso to see how it is!
I used my standard 1:16 ratio pourover method of 28g coffee to 450g water in a notNeutral Gino with Kalita 185 filter. The aroma in the cup had some florals and some sweet fruits, but nothing I could identify really easily. Lack of sleep and being on a plane late last night probably affected my nose! In the cup this is a sweet, somewhat delicate and somewhat light coffee for an Ethiopian natural. I would say it had medium body with a relatively quick aftertaste that left me with a note that reminded me a bit of Fruit Stripe bubblegum! This coffee comes off as a low-acidity cup to me. There is some lime character in there, but it’s really just there to offer balance to the fruity sweetness. As expected, there are some berry notes, which are common and sought after from Ethiopian natural coffees. I was getting some strawberry, a little bit of blueberry and some blackberry in the cup, but they were all subtle.
This is a pleasant, well-behaved coffee! It has nice flavors that are a little delicate and subdued but that leave a nice aftertaste. There is a lot of sweetness and balance, so people who like a sweet cup without as much brightness will like this one. The cup is pretty clean for a natural, with little ferment (I always like ferment, though! LOL) and it’s just a nice, mild, super easy-drinking example of a natural coffee. I’ll bet this will be delicious as espresso! This is an easy choice for a morning starter or would make a nice post-meal cup, too. Indiana, FTW!