As well as the mainstay espresso blend, Artigiano feature regularly rotating single origin coffees, showcasing different countries of origin, varieties and processing, showing off the very best in speciality coffee.
The current single origin being featured is Kechewo, a delicious washed coffee from Ethiopia.
Ethiopia Kechewo
Processing: Washed
Producers: Various producers
Varietal: Heirloom
Region: Limmu
Altitude: 1,800 to 2,000 masl
Kechewo is juicy from start to finish. It’s very refreshing and clean with medium citric acidity that is balanced by the sweetness of the blood orange and base notes of the black tea. Grown about six hours west of Addis Ababa near the town of Jimma in Ethiopia’s Oromia State, Origin fell for the Kechewo and its vibrant limeade sweetness, which is perfect for the summer.
The Kechewo washing station was founded in 2010 with 400 farmers, which has now blossomed into 1,417 members today. The producers are spread over 2,000 hectares. Their extremely small coffee farms are mixed in with other crops that make up 30% of the mill’s total serviced land. 60% of that land is still untouched forest and 10% is for local cattle grazing. The NGO TechnoServe, which has collaborated with many of the mills producing Ethiopia’s best coffees work with Kechewo.
TechnoServe offers assistance through financing and technical advice, sharing new coffee producing techniques and knowledge with places that have had difficulty accessing such expertise. TechnoServe’s mandate is to share the tools that producers need to get started and enable them to take over and make the business self-sufficient. The mill is currently going strong making a profit, which is being used to pay members more for their incredible coffee and invest in the future.
June’s featured coffee is the incredible Las Mingas, a direct trade coffee from a recent sourcing trip to Colombia.
Colombia Las Mingas
Processing: Washed
Producer: Romero Sanchez Jesus Arbey
Varietal: Caturra
Regions: Pitalito, Huila
Altitudes: 1,440 masl
Romero Sanchez Jesus Arbey, his wife Blanca Rojas and their children moved near Pitalito in Colombia’s Huila region about 17 years ago, for better schools and a better life. However, when they arrived, Romero found incredible land – land that could create incredible coffee.
Origin Coffee Roasters met with Romero, his family and their big pack of playful dogs on a cloudy day in July last year. His farm is made up of gentle hills rather than the usual steep cliffs that are present on many coffee farms, making the incredibly difficult job of creating this amazing coffee a little bit easier for Romero.
Origin were struck by this coffee and how it captured what was so unique and interesting about Colombian coffee and the Caturra varietal. Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon varietal found in Brazil, but has taken off in Colombia as the speciality coffee varietal of choice. Caturra is incredibly delicious, sweet and complex and Romero has captured Caturra at its very best.