Another Misty Valley in Ethiopia

First of all, a picture of some recent stash additions. I was doing well on stash reduction, but things are out of control lately. Such is life, I guess. There was a shipping special going on, so I had to take advantage. After all, I was saving money, right?

It is no secret that Ethiopia's Idido Misty Valley is one of my all-time favorite coffees. The complexity and fruitiness of it, combined with the exacting preparation of the seeds really provides a clarity of flavor that I think is spectacular.

This year, there was another coffee playing off the "Misty Valley" moniker, namely a coffee from the same region exported by someone else. This one was deemed "Menno's Misty Valley" in honor of a certain Menno Simon who produced the coffee.

Apparently this was quite a small lot, and it disappeared from the Sweet Maria's offering list in a short time, too quickly for me to grab some. In an act of generosity, a fellow internet roaster sent me a pound to try out. My thanks go out to Eddie for his kindness. I have been playing around with slow roasts for a while, and I thought that would perhaps bring out the qualities of this coffee well, especially since I was aiming for quite a light roast. Here it is:


I need to collect my thoughts a bit, but some of these Gene Cafe roasts with what look like long roast times are turning out really well. In this case, the coffee was dynamite. This has a character that I haven't encountered before in Ethiopian dry processed coffees. There is an intense orange note, of all things. Berries are common enough flavors in these coffees, but never have I had such an intense orange note. The coffee is thick and liquory (is that a word?), with intense chocolate and orange notes. As espresso, even at such a light roast, the results are delicious. This is a heady brew, no doubt, and one that I am glad I had a chance to try.