What's in the Box: Ethiopia Worka Chelchele Natural and Honduras Alex Aguilar
Ethiopia Worka Chelchele Natural
This month, we have a subscriber exclusive offering, an Ethiopia natural from Yirgacheffe! Over the years, Worka has been producing amazing coffee—just last year we had the washed Worka Sakaro and it did not disappoint with its fresh citrus and floral tea flavors. Now, we have the Worka Chelchele Natural. It’s a delicious explosion of fruity flavors like blueberry, wineberry, and chocolate mousse.
Located in southern Ethiopia, Yirgacheffe is a region known for its successful coffee production, thanks to its nutrient-dense soil and high elevations (coffee there is grown between 1940-1970 meters above sea level!). This particular lot is from the Worka washing station in the Chelchele village. Here, the coffee is dried on raised beds for approximately 21 days. The washing station manages over 360 drying beds for drying natural and washed coffees, which are then handpicked by local farmers who sort only ripe cherry for best quality. This lot undergoes natural processing, which helps to develop its complex, fruity flavors that we savor in each cup!
Worka Chelchele Natural
Tasting Notes: Blueberry, Wineberry, Chocolate Mousse
Producer: Smallholder producers
Region: Yirgacheffe
Altitude: 1940 - 1970 masl
Variety: Heirloom
Process: Natural
Honduras Alex Aguilar Bourbon
Santa Barbara is a region in Honduras known for producing the most exotic and mind-bending Honduras coffees. The reason for this is twofold, 1) terroir and 2) market access.
The terroir here provides ripe growing conditions, both high altitudes and cool nights to allow for slow cherry maturation and dense beans. Bourbon and Pacas varieties are commonly grown here and pop with flavor profiles that are more fresh and bright tasting as opposed to nutty, spicy, and drying. Washed processed coffees are the name of the game, processed on each small farm.
Market access is the second key factor to these coffees standing out. Benjamin Paz has been the relationship piece to connect coffee buyers and roasters with small-scale coffee producers in this area. His family runs the export mill, San Vicente, and they funnel all these lots through their dry mill before coordinating export. Most of the growers in Santa Barbara produce very small lots, like this one from Alex Aguilar, which is three bags (or 456 lbs)!
This washed Bourbon coffee from Alex Aguilar hit our cupping table next to a bunch of honey, natural, and anaerobic processed lots from Honduras' Marcala region. Alex’s lot stood out amidst these other flavor bombs. We loved it for its fresh citrus, slightly floral, and very intriguing taste--it’s hard to believe it is a coffee from Honduras. Vanilla, lemon bars, nectarine, and marzipan fill the cup. We couldn’t pass up this one, and we hope you enjoy the fruit of Alex Aguilar's labor!