Ethiopian Harar Horse

Sweet Maria's Coffee

Harar is intense. A really good Harar is a coffee that is fruity (blueberry to apricot) and with flowery enzymatic aromas, jasmine tea, maple woodiness, exotic hide or fresh leather, mulling spice... in other words, good Harar is like the fragrance of an open-air arabic market! Harars have pungent rustic chocolate roast flavors and a range of winey to fermented fruitiness. But this is a highly variable coffee, not just year-to-year, but lot-to-lot and sometimes even bag-to-bag! Some years might contains the covented blueberry character and another year it can be completely absent from all lots. Some years are cleaner and more tea-like and others are heavier, more wild and earthy. Harars are wild, natural coffees; two euphemisms for natural dry-processed. The reason MAO is included here in the title is that this importer in Dire Dawa (Mohamed Abdullahi Ogsadey -see his certificate found in each bag) is a really good source for Ethiopian coffees, often having the 1 or 2 really exceptional lots. But exporter's mark is still not enough, you have to choose from lot to lot. I love good Harar and cup many lots of Harar Horse from 2 sources, and from 3 other exporters. Early lots this year (2005 - they started arriving early this season in February) really lacked the exotic fruit notes I expect in a Harar and I was worried the whole crop would be a bit off. I remember 4 years ago when all the Harars were just dirty tasting and had none of the intoxicating fruitiness in them. This is second lot we selected this year of the Harar Horse, one that sold out quickly when it arrived, and is a nice mid-to late-crop arrival from Harar. This has the wild fruited notes that I really like in Harar, from apricot and mango to hints of blueberry. The fruit is not consistent though; this is the variable character for a hand-processed natural coffee like Harar, but hey, I will accept some inconsistency because all the cups are so intense and so good! Other cups are huskier, more darky fruited. The dry fragrance of this coffee is excellent. It is so intense it almost makes everything else disappointing (it's not, but when you grind this you will know what I mean.) Although this Harar lacks body if you drink it too soon after roasting (12-24 hours for example) it is hard to resist, and this is where the aromas are so powerful. The cup has a dark brown sugar sweetness too which turns to rustic dried fig tones, but the herbal-floral and blueberry highlights steal the show with this cup.

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