Amaro Gayo, Ethiopia – Irving Farm

A few weeks back a friend sent me a list of his favorite coffee roasters across the country. New York roaster, Irving Farm, was top of his list. After trying a few of their coffees, I can understand why.

This Ethiopian coffee is a naturally processed, organic coffee from the Amaro Mountains of southwestern Ethiopia. The coffee is produced by Asnakech Thomas, an independent female producer, mill operator and exporter. She is doing some amazing work, which you can read more about on Irving Farm’s website.

The coffee begins with a strong, complex fragrance. It was incredibly sweet with strong notes of berry and lemon. In the taste, the sugar sweetness carried through and was accompanied by notes of mixed berry. The berry/fruit notes were more subtle than typical natural African coffees, but definitely still present. There was an underlying acidity throughout the entire sip and a wonderfully creamy mouthfeel—much thicker than I have usually found with coffees in this genre. The aftertaste was long and smooth and I found at the end of the finish that additional berry flavor notes “popped” in on the side of my tongue, which was a great surprise.

The Bottom Line

While this naturally processed Ethiopian coffee checked off many of the boxes common for coffees in this genre, it also broke the mold quite a bit with its thicker body and more subtle berry notes. It was an incredibly delicious coffee that was a lot of fun to explore and one that is absolutely worth trying.