We know our Gatta Anaerobic is good. Crazy good. Good enough to take to competition, even. Still, when Coffee Review in their March tasting report awarded this recent Ethiopian micro lot with a soaring 94 points, we were blissfully over the moon.
Gatta Anaerobic is Olympia Coffee's first-ever anaerobic coffee from Ethiopia, sourced from producer Kenean Dukamo of Gatta Farm in Sidamo. It also happens to be the only lot on Coffee Review's list that hails from the African continent. While more farms in Latin America seem to have jumped on anaerobic processing, the trend has picked up more slowly in areas like Ethiopia, where smallholder farms and minimal processing techniques still dominate the landscape. Yet the rise of anaerobic has pushed some producers—such as Dukamo—to reconfigure their approaches to processing in an attempt to elevate their offerings and tap more deeply into the expanding specialty market.
For a region known mostly for its washed- and natural-process coffees, the rising popularity of anaerobic processing offers a new perspective on the flavors we've come to expect from Ethiopian coffee. Often, a washed Ethiopian lot might convey elegant, floral tea notes; or a natural process lot, dried with the cherry still on the bean, might bring flavors of stone fruit and berries to the final cup. Yet the process of prolonging fermentation of both cherry and bean in an oxygen-deprived, temperature-monitored environment, then drying with the fruit still on, coaxes out another flavor experience altogether.
In their blind taste test, Coffee Review described Gatta Anaerobic as "delicately tangy/tart" and "sweetly herb- and cocoa-toned," highlighting notes of clove, cocoa, tangerine zest, honey, and orchid in its aroma and cup. They also experienced a juicy, sweet-tart structure and satiny mouthfeel — echoing our own experience of this coffee's characteristics, which we found were amplified when dialing it in on espresso. And on the finish, they detected a "cocoa-centered" yet "deeply and subtly nuanced" aftertaste. Their overall take? "Impressive in its delicate completeness and balance," which they recommended "for those interested in exploring the deeply expressive yet subtler side of the anaerobic style."
We're honored. And as for our recommendation, this is hands-down one of Olympia Coffee's highlight lots of the year and absolutely worth a try. Get Gatta Anaerobic now while supplies last, and remember it fondly once the bag is empty and the last cup is drained. We know we will, for sure.
Sources:
"Fresh Fruit or 'Juicy Fruit'? Tasting 90 Anaerobic-Processed Coffees," Kenneth Davids, Coffee Review,
"Olympia Coffee: Ethiopia Gatta Anaerobic," Coffee Review, March 2023.