Good morning and welcome to today’s review! I’m checking out a special lot of natural Ethiopian coffee from Manzanita Coffee Roasting. I’ve been ripping shots of this as espresso for a few days and it has been incredible, so I’m excited for my first go with this coffee as a pourover. Slurp!
Manzanita Coffee Roasting Co. website
Purchase this coffee for $22/12oz
MANZANITA COFFEE ROASTING CO. ETHIOPIA ABANA ESTATE ANDERACHA LOT
Manzanita Coffee Roasting Co. was founded in 2015 by Weston and Samantha Nawrocki. Weston is a classically trained chef and sommelier and Samantha has wine in her blood, given that her family has run Bernardo Winery near San Diego, California, for over 125 years! Manzanita sent me coffee to review for the first time back in March 2016 and I’ve had a lot of their coffee since, and it’s always top notch. They sent me 4 of their current coffees to share with you, dear readers, so let’s check this natural Ethiopian out first.
A couple days after this box of coffee arrived Weston messaged me that he had been pulling shots of it as espresso and loved it, and so that was how I was enjoying this coffee for a few days, and it’s amazing as espresso. This morning is my first attempt with this coffee as a pourover and I don’t usually do one-offs like this, instead drinking the coffee several times before I get my notes together, but I thought it’d be fun to try something different with this coffee. This morning’s coffee is listed as “Ethiopia Anderacha Micro Lot [Natural]” on Manzanita’s website. According to the description, “The Anderacha lots were uniquely processed and we had utilized cherry fermentation prior to processing which contributed to sweetness, complexity, a body with depth and balance.” I’m not sure what that hint about processing means, but natural coffees are picked and sorted by hand, then laid out on raised beds for the coffee cherries to dry slowly in the sun or shade like big raisins. This tends to impart a lot of fruitiness and sweetness, as well as body, to the seeds inside, what we call coffee beans.
“Abana” translates to “our fathers” and is a tribute to the deep roots that wild, “heirloom” Arabica coffee has in Ethiopia. Abana Coffee Estates is located near Gera, in the Limu region of Ethiopia and coffee grows at 1933-2200 meters above sea level there. These Anderacha lots consist of Metu Bishari, Gera and Merdacheriko varieties and Manzanita says to expect notes of, “peach and cacao nibs.” I’m using my standard pourover setup of a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with Kalita 155 filter. Grinder is a Knock Aergrind and I pulse pour through a Melodrip to minize agitation in the coffee bed during brewing. This coffee had a beautiful bloom that I let go for a full minute. Including the bloom, this coffee brewed for a 3:20 total time.
There is a lot going on in the aroma of this coffee. When the water hit the grounds in my Trinity brewer, I was getting peach and other stone fruits. In the cup, the aroma still has some of that, but there are a lot of berries in the mix and a bit of fermentation, which I really like. There is something “ester”-like in the aroma, with a common ester being the chemical that gives bananas their smell. I’m not getting banana in the aroma here, but there’s something in that spirit that I can’t quite put my finger (nose) on. Taking a sip, this is a medium bodied coffee with a smooth, almost slippery mouthfeel not unlike an oatmeal stout (just without the stout’s heavy, dense body). I’m inundated with watermelon and honeydew melon right in the front of the sip. This is the most melon-y coffee I’ve tasted in a long time, maybe ever! There’s a honey sweetness in addition to the watermelon, sugary sweetness I’m getting on the front end of this coffee. In the second half of the sip I’m getting peach and a bit of apricot, both flavors I adore in coffee. With melons and peach and stonefruits and honey in this cup it sounds like a sugar bomb, but it’s actually quite balanced. I was getting some frank bitter notes at the brewed temp, but as it cooled those dissipated quickly. Now in the cooling cup there is a hint of roast in the finish and the second half of the sip has a lightly bitter tinge to it that nicely balances all that sweetness and works well in the context of these flavors. It’s not unpleasant or astringent or out of place, but it’s hard to describe and still sound appetizing, so I apologize for that. This coffee finishes slightly sweet and leaves a sugary feel on the back of my tongue and throat, carrying me into the afteraste with hints of slightly overripe peach and watermelon rind into the next sip.
Longtime readers know I am a big fan of natural coffees in general, but especially Ethiopians, and this is one of the best I’ve had, especially in the last couple years. The flavors are unusual compared to the usual berry jam mix of a natty from Ethiopia, so the watermelon and peach and apricot were all super unexpected, but man, they work great in this coffee! When I was pulling espresso shots of this coffee I started with some pretty restricted shots as I was dialing in and even a thick, dense 1:1 (19g in, about 20g out in about 30 seconds!) ristretto had crazy flavors of grape soda (lots of grape soda), raspberry and dark chocolate. The coffee was a little gassy still so after letting it sit for about a week, I came back to it and it’s outrageously good. I just pulled a shot with 19g in the basket, 29-30 seconds, yield of 34.8g of espresso in the cup. TONS of peach, which is unusual for me with espresso. It’s a peach bomb to my palate this morning. Notes of dark chocolate, lemon-lime soda (like Sprite or 7-Up) and lime acidity with hint of lime bitterness. This is a KILLER espresso!
All in all, a super exceptional coffee from Manzanita. This Anderacha lot is one of the best naturals I’ve had in a long time, probably in my history of drinking coffee. Espresso or filter, it’s certainly not to be missed!