Ethiopian FTO Harar - Oromia Coop

Sweet Maria's Coffee

This lot of Harar Organic was pleasant late-crop arrival: we often find the best Harars come from MAO Horse (although we must cup many lots of Harar Horse to find the real gems). But it seems that Oromia has come up with a good later crop lot as the season ebbs (August arrivals are the last Harar shipments until March or so of the next year). I have never had a great sample from a late crop Horse lot. Nevertheless, I always cup the other Harar sources including Bagersh and this, the Oromia cooperative. We bought Organic Dry-Process Sidamo and a lot of Wet-Process Organic Yirgacheffe from them last year but like all Ethiopian coffees there is a lot of variation lot-to-lot (and unfortunately sometimes there is variation within a particular lot number). Oromia is a huge cooperative spread throughout the upland country with something like 27,000 members farmer-members. So at different times of the season, even from within the same region and from the same cooperative mills, they are shipping lots with very different cup qualities. Well, that's why we cup, and what makes the cupper's job so critical; you can't buy a coffee based on the name on the bag! I had a table of Harar coffees from all sources, not knowing which was which, and this lot screamed out at me with incredible berry and fruit aromatics. I had noticed already that this one sample had a strong fragrance of berry and apricot when I ground the sample. This has one of the best dry fragrances of a Harar that I have had the pleasure of smelling. It follows through into the wet aromatics where I find less blueberry and more apricot and a little mango. As with all dry-processed coffees, there is a variable nature to the cup results, and some cups have less of this fruit, and more of a spice and chocolate character - both cup results are excellent. Now I must admit, this coffee smells so fine that the cup flavors are perhaps a notch below. But this is a typical experience with a really good Harar... and hey, the aroma is an incredibly important part of the total cup experience. Cupping the very good Harar horse lot next to this one is a tough call, especially because of the variations from batch to batch that are endemic to natural dry-process coffees and Harar in particular. But I pick this one over the Horse about 60% of the time. So take note, fans of the Horse - good Harars can come from other sources too.

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