Tinker Coffee Co. Ethiopia Reko

I was out of town for a week on a much-needed family vacation, but it’s nice to be back in the swing of things! I have a few coffee and equipment reviews to post before July coffees start pouring in, including this one from June’s Barista Coffee Box featuring Indianapolis roaster, Tinker Coffee Co. Let’s check out this Reko from Ethiopia!

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BARISTA COFFEE BOX JUNE 2017: TINKER COFFEE CO. ETHIOPIA REKO

Tinker Coffee Co. is a roaster based out of Indianapolis, Indiana whose coffee I have enjoyed in the past on several occasions. They don’t have a shop, but they do have a lot of wholesale accounts and they do cuppings and other educational events in their roasting space, so if you find yourself in Indiana, there’s a good chance you can find Tinker coffee (or, order online!). Today’s coffee was included in the June Barista Coffee Box that featured Tinker’s coffee and it looks like it may be out of rotation on Tinker’s site, currently, so I’m not sure if they sold out or if it will make a return…

This morning, I’m looking at Tinker’s Ethiopia Reko. This is a washed coffee consisting of heirloom and Kurume varieties processed at the famed Reko washing station in Kochere, Yirgacheffe in the heart of Ethiopian coffee growing country. These coffees grow at 1850-2100masl. Reko handles coffee from about 850 farmers and started processing coffee in 2001. Since then, the name has become synonymous with high quality Ethiopian washed coffees and people seem to snatch Rekos up at a fast pace when they come on the market. Tinker gives us tasting notes of, “strawberry, jasmine and lemon bar” for this coffee.

I used my standard 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita filters for this coffee. Handground grinder was set to 3 and I used Third Wave Water in my preparation, as always. This coffee definitely has density to it and it wanted to choke and clog the filter, so a slightly coarser grind may be needed. I did some high altitude pouring from my kettle to keep the grounds agitated while I brewed, and that helps keep the brew water moving, too.

This presented me with a light, subtle, delicate cup of coffee as is often the case with washed coffees from Ethiopia. There is a sweet lemon acidity that hits the sides of my tongue and cheeks, mostly, at the forefront of the sip. A light body that still has nice sweetness balances this acidity out nicely, though, and I did get some hints of strawberry in the sweetness of this cup, although it’s not at the level it would be in a natural Ethiopian coffee, for example. There’s a little bit of a baked cookie sweetness and carmelization to this coffee, too, but that lemony acidity really rings throughout the sip. I am getting a definite green tea mouthfeel and flavor note from this coffee, too, which I rather like in the context of this coffee. There isn’t a ton of complexity in this cup for me, but what this coffee does, it does exceptionally well and that’s what drinkers have come to expect from Reko and what I’ve learned to expect from Tinker, specifically!