Coffee of the Week: Refisa, Ethipoia

Happy Monday everyone,

Look at me! Two for two on the late week posting!

Equally exciting is the fact that we are spending all this week with a fresh crop Ethiopian coffee from the Refisa washing station! Some of you might recall that Refisa made it onto our menus last year in the form of a base ingredient to The Core when we ran out of Aricha.

When this year's harvest was offered again, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Refisa the washing station, takes its name from the adjacent community.  Both community and washing station are located in the Nansebo Woreda of the West Arsi Zone.  I've talked a little about the geographical borders of Ethiopia in the past, I'm certainly no expert, hence the links above may help you place where in the world we are talking about. 

Generally overshadowed by more well known coffee growing regions like Sidama, Guji, and Yirgacheffe (Gedeo Zone), West Arsi has been building a reputation for excellent coffees in recent years.  Some of this change may be attributed to Negusse Debela and his company SNAP, which own the Refisa washing station, along with other washing stations in other regions of Ethiopia.

The Refisa has all the hallmarks of classic washed coffees from southern central Ethiopia. The acidity is clean, sweet, and mildly citric.  The flavor is aromatic, somewhat floral, bolstered by a rich, black tea-like body.  As soon as this coffee made it into the warehouse, we dialed in a roast profile that accented the sweetness while preserving the elegance of this coffee.  I sent a bag to a customer who had been waiting months for fresh Ethiopian coffees to hit our menus and his response was, "Just received (the coffee), the aroma is immediately recognizable as a Highwire roast!"

We're also using this coffee in both The Core and Tightrope,  and because this coffee is certified organic, we'll be adding it to Conscientious Objector in the coming week!

In addition to this coffee's deliciousness, you may also notice that our single origin bags all now come with tin-ties.  This is the first of the bags to roll out with an improved design that's a little taller and features a white tin-tie below a notched tear line.  We still recommend the use of scissors when opening the sealed part of the bag, but the tin-tie will help secure the bag one it's been opened. We'll be looking to have the rest of the line-up similarly situated in the coming months.