Ethiopia Wollega Leka Wato (WP)
Cupping Notes
The sweet scent from the Wollega is really remarkable. In the dry grounds there is abundant honey, and lemon wafer cookie. There are spice accents in the light roast, a bit of citrus rind, and just a hint menthol-eucalyptus as well. The wet aroma has cane sugar in the lighter roast levels, becoming increasingly caramelly approaching Full City roast. The cup is syrupy in texture, with sweet lemon and pear juice at City roast level. There is an amazing co-presence of sweetness, fruit notes, as well as ripe, bright-toned citrus to the cup. Lemon drop candy, that's a good description.
It quickly changes to a dark brown sugar sweetness and more caramelized notes at City+ and Full City roast levels. I would recommend City - City+, since I find the more tarry, dark, pungent finish at FC+ a little distracting. But in fact it works so well at the lighter roasts, why go darker?
Coffee Story / Farm Description:
Some single origin coffee’s have funny sounding names. This is one of them. But what's in a name? This coffee would typically be sold as "Lekempti", a trade name in coffee to designate Western Ethiopian coffees traded through the city of Nekempte, while the coffee actually originates further west in East Woolen (also called Misraq Wellega which is the Gimbi woreda state). But don't confuse that with the trade name Ghimbi, which is only for dry-process coffees from the same area.
In all that name changing, coffees were also made generic, sold and re-sold by traders, and eventually ended up with the Addis exporters under some name or other. Coffees from this area were considered Yirga Cheffe wanna-bes, and were not given much heed. But as some avenues for more direct purchasing have grown, new coffee sources are emerging. This is the first time we have offered a wet-process coffee from this area once branded Lekempti, except this was a lot that bypassed the trading system.
Leka Wato is the name of the farm in Wato town, Leka Delecha district of East Wellega area, west of Gimbi town. The farm is at about 1750 meters, and occupies about 100 hectares. Now that was a mouthful...but now you know.
Roast Recommendations:
The best roasts are from City to City+
Processing:
Wet Process
Varietal:
Heirloom Varietals