Brew Guide: Ethiopia Qabballe

By Ted Dobek

Qabballe is a coffee that takes time. Fifteen smallholder farmers around Teraga in the Guji Zone, processed by Ture Waji and the Sookoo Coffee team at the Raro Nensebo Drying Station. Dried slow, turned six times a day, 21 to 28 days on raised beds. The care in the processing shows in the cup, but only if you let it rest.

A note on this recipe: these numbers are dialed in on our setup at the shop. Your brewer, grind, and water will affect the result, so treat this as a strong starting point, not a fixed target.

Coffee

Name: Ethiopia Qabballe
Origin: Teraga, Guji Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia
Producer: Sookoo Coffee / Ture Waji
Elevation: 2,225 masl
Variety: 74110, 74112
Process: Natural

What Dialed In Tastes Like

When it's right, you're getting blackberry depth up front, a peach lemonade brightness through the middle, and a lavender floral note in the finish. Fruit-forward and clean, with none of the ferment funk that can come with naturals that aren't handled well.

Common Misses

This coffee is extremely sensitive to rest. Naturals fracture differently than washed coffees during grinding, generating more fines, and on a fresh roast those fines will stall the brew fast. If your flow rate is sluggish or the cup tastes muddy and overextracted, rest is almost always the culprit. Four weeks minimum. Give it time and it opens up completely.

Filed under: Brewing