Jose Hernan Salazar Heirloom Ethiopia

This unique coffee was produced by José Hernán Salazar, from the town of Pitalito in southern Colombia. José’s coffee was initially brought to our attention at Colombia’s Cup of Excellence competitions in 2020 and 2021, where he won 6th and 5th place respectively. This lot is what José calls the “Ají” varietal, which is the Spanish word for chili pepper. José named it after noticing the spicy smell of its cherries. These delicate chili pepper-like qualities are also subtly present in the cup, giving this coffee a truly one-of-a-kind flavor.

All the interest piqued by this obscure coffee led Cup of Excellence to have it tested by RD2 Vision, a coffee research and development company based in France. It was determined that “Ají” is a newly-discovered Ethiopia Landrace Heirloom Varietal—meaning it’s a previously unknown, wild-varietal coffee from Ethiopia. Landrace plants are grown from seeds that have not been systematically selected or hybridized by plant breeders. With this coffee, you have the rare chance to taste a pure Ethiopian Landrace coffee, something that rarely has ever happened outside of Ethiopia.

Light Roast: Agtron 70

The Agtron scale ranges from 0 to 100, with 0 being the darkest and 100 being the lightest. In the coffee industry, the most common range for roasted coffee is typically between 25 (very dark) and 75 (very light).

- 0-30: Very dark roast

- 30-45: Dark roast

- 45-55: Medium-dark roast

- 55-65: Medium roast

- 65-75: Light roast

- 75-100: Very light roast

Olympia Coffee is dedicated to ethical coffee production through our Fair For All initiative. Our approach guarantees that everyone involved in the coffee production process, from farmers to customers, benefits from our rigorous green coffee sourcing standards. Our sourcing practices and employee compensation meet Living Wage standards and are third-party certified. You can find more information about our Fair For All initiative by visiting www.fairforall.coffee.

We purchased 34, 35kg vacuum packed boxes comprising 3 different lots the average price paid  $11.03 FOB. We score this coffee 90 on the production roasts. We worked with Caravela for Export and Import.

We are proud to compensate our packaging team with a Living Wage of $20.75-$24.00 per hour, and our roasting team with a Living Wage of $21-26 per hour at our roastery.