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Ethiopia

Sheka

Sheka

A ripe and tropical fruit driven cup, produced by Moplaco on their Kawo Kamin farm, and processed at their Sheka mill

$22.00 USD
$22.00 USD

About

Coffee Expression The honey process enhances the sweetness of this lot, reminiscent of ripe and aromatic tropical fruit.

Producer The fourth time we have purchased from Moplaco’s Sheka mill, which was completed just before the 19/20 harvest season.

Whole Bean Coffee / Both for filter and espresso

Brewing Advice

Water is one of the most critical components of an excellent coffee experience. We recommend using mineral water of a soft Total Dissolved Solids count, ideally below 150 ppm. 

Rested coffee During the resting process, harsh and astringent flavors, which can even be perceived as a ‘roast’ character, soften out, allowing a clearer and brighter expression of the coffee’s character to shine.  

We recommend resting our coffees for at least 10 days after the roast date, and we often find excellent results, especially for particularly dense coffees, beyond 6 weeks.

Brewing Our straightforward approach to coffee carries over into brewing. We recommend our roasted coffee for all brew methods, regardless of whether it is immersion, percolation or espresso. We believe that there is one correct way to roast a single coffee, roasting lightly, in such a way as to release its innate qualities and showcase its quality. Learn more about different brewing techniques and specific brew guides here.

Technical Data

Producer  Moplaco

Region SNNPR

Altitude 2000 masl

Varietal  Heirloom

Process Honey

Harvest December 2023

Taste Expression Floral & Rich

Shipping & Delivery

· Free shipping on US orders above $79 and on orders above $99 to Mexico and Canada

· Ships within 1-3 days from Brooklyn, New York

· Coffee is roasted to order

· More info

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Moplaco

This is our fourth release from Moplaco’s own farm, Kawo Kamin. Single farm lots are still rather seldom seen in Ethiopia, even since the liberalisation of the coffee market there in 2017, so it is a privilege to be able to share this lot by the team at Moplaco. We purchased our first lot from Kawo Kanin and the neighbouring Sheka mill in its first season in 2020.

Sheka

The Sheka forest is located in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in the far southwest of the country near the border with South Sudan. The forest, one of the most beautiful places we have visited during our years of coffee travels, is one of the largest areas of indigenous forest remaining in Ethiopia, known for its production of wild honey.

While the healthy bees here are a good sign of biodiversity and minimal chemical use, much of Ethiopia has become very intensively farmed in recent years. The government has aimed to widen this intensive approach by offering grants to encourage agriculture across the still relatively untouched SNNPR. Especially tea, coffee and timber production is incentivised, leading to the involvement of foreign investors, deforesting swathes of land to create large estates and enforcing questionable working conditions for natives.

Forty kilometres outside the town of Masha lies Moplaco’s Kawo Kamin farm, probably the single most beautiful coffee farm we have ever visited. Here, coffee is grown in synergy with the Sheka forest, using the indigenous forest as shade for the trees, maintaining biodiversity. This also has a positive effect on coffee quality; the plants are well-nourished and grow in ideal conditions under the humid forest canopy. Most of the local farmers have been able to maintain their bee hives in the 150 hectares of protected forest that surround the farm. This mode of production, working alongside the forest to cultivate coffee while still pruning and managing the plantation, is known as semi-forest coffee.

This carefully produced raw material is then taken to Moplaco’s Sheka mill to be processed. This station is Moplaco’s newest, and has mainly produced natural and honey coffees so far, as the large fermentation tanks required to produce washed coffees were only completed in 2022. Honey coffees have been exported from Sheka several times now, and are produced using a well-defined protocol.

Cherries are carefully selected before de-pulping using a small hand cranked de-pulper. The coffee is then dried on raised beds under shade. Plastic covers are often used, and the drying takes slightly longer than it would in much of Ethiopia due to frequent rains and cool temperatures during harvest. This long drying results in a softness and depth in the cup, softening the kiwi notes we often find in Sheka lots into ripe tropical fruit, while maintaining the distinctly complex florals.