Regular price 372.00 ฿
Unit price per
Flavor Notes
Bitter, Dark Chocolate,Grape, Yellow Peach, Plum, Cloves, Velvety
Beans
Farm : Gera
Producer: Smallholder farmers
Area: Limu zone, Jimma, Ethiopia
Altitude: 1,900- 2,000m
Varietal: Heirloom
Processing: Anaerobic Honey
Roast Level
Dark roast
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<Ethiopia Gera>
This coffee was grown at Gera Estate, located in the Jimma area of Oromia, western Ethiopia, about 440 km from the capital city of Addis Ababa. Gera Estate is surrounded by an expansive forest covering approximately 1,000 hectares. Coffee cultivation began here in 2008 on about 100 hectares of land. Since then, the cultivated area has gradually expanded, and by 2019, the estate had grown into an approximately 500-hectare organic coffee farm. There are plans to expand cultivation into the remaining 500 hectares in the future, while continuing to take care to preserve the surrounding forest.
The estate sits at an altitude of 1,900–2,100 meters above sea level. Surrounded by rich forest and growing at high elevations, Ethiopian heirloom coffee varieties thrive in this unique environment.
More than 80% of the coffee produced at Gera Estate is processed using the washed method. Natural and anaerobic lots account for the remaining approximately 20%. This coffee is one of the lots produced using anaerobic fermentation.
After harvesting, the cherries are carefully sorted to remove underripe and overripe fruit. They are then placed into stainless-steel tanks equipped with air valves and thermometers. The tanks are sealed, and the cherries undergo one day of anaerobic fermentation.
After fermentation, the outer skin is removed while leaving the mucilage on the beans. The coffee is then transferred to African drying beds, where it is slowly dried to completion.
This coffee offers a wide range of fruit characteristics, including berries, stone fruits, and tropical fruits. For this release, we roasted it in what we consider one of Philocoffea's specialties: a vivid, expressive dark roast.
When developing this roast, I wanted to create a coffee that could allow people who usually enjoy dark roasts to experience bright acidity and fruit character as well.
For someone who normally drinks dark-roasted coffee, jumping straight into a light roast can sometimes feel like a big change—the acidity may seem a little too sharp at first. But if you can find a dark roast that still has the sweetness and body you expect, together with a touch of bright fruit character, it might open the door to medium and light roasts as well.
That was the idea behind this coffee: a dark roast that gently expands the range of coffees you might enjoy without asking you to completely change your usual preference.
And when you have more choices, the simple question of “What should I drink today?” can become a little more fun.
We hope this is a coffee that dark-roast drinkers will especially enjoy, but we also encourage those who usually prefer light roasts to give it a try.
When I first roasted this coffee, its density and moisture content were both quite substantial, so I decided to give it plenty of heat from the very beginning. For the first batch, both the charge temperature and initial heat were intentionally high.
After tasting the roast, the fruit character was beautifully present, but the mouthfeel felt a little too light. For the next batch, I slightly reduced the heat at the beginning of the roast, aiming to maintain the brightness of the fruit while giving the coffee a little more weight and texture.
The total roast time was in the nine-minute range, which is relatively short for a dark roast.
Rather than slowly developing the roast character through a long roasting process, I wanted to preserve as much of the coffee's naturally vivid fruit character as possible while still taking it all the way into dark roast territory.
The idea was to finish the roast quickly and decisively, keeping the brightness alive along the way.
At our roastery, our staff brew coffee almost every day and share it with everyone around them, saying, “Please try this!”
This Ethiopian coffee was brewed by many different people, and I had the chance to taste it each time. Interestingly, the way the coffee expressed itself changed slightly depending on who brewed it.
One cup had a substantial body and the bitterness you would expect from a dark roast, with a distinct grape-like fruit character underneath.
Another brought out brighter berry-like acidity, followed by a slightly spicy finish.
And in the cup brewed by Tetsu Kasuya, I found the bitterness characteristic of a dark roast accompanied by a soft, lingering sweetness reminiscent of peach.
It was fascinating to see how the same coffee could reveal such different expressions simply because someone else brewed it.
It is the kind of coffee that makes you look forward to being handed a cup by someone saying, “Try this,” and wondering, “I wonder what it will taste like this time?”
The character of the coffee also continues to change within a single cup.
When it is hot, you may first notice the pronounced bitterness and satisfying body of a dark roast.
As the temperature gradually drops, notes of grape, berries, and yellow peach begin to emerge, along with nuances that remind me of spices.
With each sip, the impression can shift again, making you think, “Oh, now it tastes like this.”
When we drink coffee, it is easy to start looking for the “right” answer—thinking that we have to brew it perfectly or identify every flavor correctly.
With this coffee, I hope you can simply relax and enjoy it without worrying too much about getting everything right.
We hope you will enjoy this coffee with that kind of relaxed curiosity, and discover its vivid, ever-changing character as it moves and shifts from one moment to the next.