Dinkinesh: Worka Chelbessa – Little Waves Coffee

I love the craziness of experimental coffees, but I always love to come back to clean, sweet coffees as the foundation for all the coffee I love. This washed Ethiopian is a wonderful example of that profile—it was surprisingly sweet, delightfully complex, and wonderfully clean. It comes from Little Waves Coffee, a North Carolina roaster who is Latina co-owned, women-forward—and recently named Roast Magazine micro-roaster of the year for 2022.

The coffee begins with a creamy, tea-like fragrance. The fruit-toned flavor reminded me of sweet lemon and subtle pineapples. It had an incredible tropical fruit sweetness throughout and a delicate structure and tea-like body. The acidity was citrus-toned and sparkling. Each sip led into a lingering finish with the sweetness sticking around long after the coffee left your mouth.

The Bottom Line

This coffee was exactly what I look for in a washed Ethiopian coffee. It was very clean with some incredible sweetness. And while it was delicate, it also was quite complex and a lot of fun to explore.