I've been in love with coffee from the Adame Garbota Cooperative for many years. Actually I've loved their coffee before they were even called Adame Garbota. You see I first tasted their coffee in 2006 when the Coop was called Kelo, and the Kelo Cooperative had just won the Africa Taste of Harvest Competition. I worked for a roaster that bought their winning lot, and I never forgot about it. After the competition, the cooperative received some loans and big financing that sadly organizationally they were not prepared for. In 2008 the Coop defaulted on loans and closed. In 2011 they reorganized and joined up with Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU). We started cupping their coffees that year and by 2013 we were buying small exemplar lots from the Coop.
At this point, hopefully you all know that in 2016 we won a Good Food Awards with Adame Garbota! Visiting the cooperative this year was especially sweet to be able to bring them a bag of their coffee with that Good Food Awards sticker on it. We are lucky to be able to work with YCFCU and our Importer for our Ethiopian coffees Royal. Royal has been kind enough to let us cup through all the lots from the Cooperative In Ethiopia and pre book the lot's that we find to be the best. This year we've contracted a extra level of milling and preparation of hand sorted and machine sorted grade 1..Dorky way of saying we got the best of the best in terms of Export Quality. I'm going to be honest and say that our lot from Adame Garbota was hands down my favorite coffee from Ethiopia this year.
Washed Ethiopian coffees tend to be favorites of Industry Folks and Customers, I believe that some of the reasons for this are the distinct flavors these coffees lend to. Floral, clean, bright, lemony are some classic Washed Ethiopian flavor descriptors. I think Adame Garbota is a great example of the type of coffees we are really passionate about Olympia Coffee.