This anaerobic natural from the Gara Agena washing station in Keramo is an absolute stunner! Faysel Abdosh has meticulously dialed in his anaerobic processing resulting in an extremely unique cup profile that tastes more like a fruit-tea than a traditional coffee.
First, coffee cherries are immersed and floated in water tanks to remove the low density coffees. Cherries are then closed in an airtight fermentation tank to create an anaerobic environment. The tanks are regulated by valves to ensure no oxygen can enter throughout the fermentation process. In this batch, the fermentation occurred for 7 days until the pH level dropped to the target of 3.8 in order to highlight the desired profile of winey, dry fruit, juicy, rich floral and tropical flavors. Throughout the 7 days, the fermentation tanks were placed in a water bath to maintain constant temperatures between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius to keep the fermentation rate very slow. The fermentation process was homogenized by rotating and moving the tanks throughout the 7 days.
At the end of the seventh day, the fermentation was suspended by taking out the cherries from the tanks. On the first day out of tanks, a quick drying is applied until the coffee humidity drops to 35%. Cherries were then dried for 30 days under shade on raised beds. Once the drying period is completed and the humidity reached 12%, the cherries were collected and stored in a conducive warehouse for four weeks of resting time before final milling and sorting. The sorting and dry milling are all done through Faysel's exporting company so quality is directly controlled all the way from cherry to export.
The result... An extremely complex cup full of mind-blowing fruit with a clean finish.
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