Habtamu Danche Ethiopia

CANDIED, SILKY, COMPLEX.

Producer: Multiple Smallholder Producers
Location: Yirgacheffe, Gedeb, Ethiopia
Elevation: 2,000-2,300 meters
Variety: Heirloom 
Process: Washed

Danche is one of our longest-standing Ethiopian coffee relationships. I’ve (Justin) been roasting it across multiple companies since its inception in 2019.

SNAP Specialty Coffee owns the Danche washing station, and we’ve worked with them for years to bring this coffee in. This year, though, we were told Danche’s Grade 1 washed coffee was unavailable through SNAP. We found out later that most of the volume had been sold and processed under the direction of Habtamu Fikadu Aga through his exporting company, Kuri Mountain Coffee. Not wanting to miss out on Danche this year, we bought this lot through Falcon instead of our normal importing partners.

We forward booked this coffee in April and because of our pre-planed release timeline we are just now offering this coffee and as the following months rolled on, we noticed that most other roasters already had some version of this year’s Danche out. That didn’t stop us from being thrilled to offer it again. We’re confident our roasting style, paired with our Sivetz fluid bed roaster, gives this lot a flavor expression that’s genuinely its own, worth trying even if you’ve already had this coffee from someone else.

Having Danche on the menu also gives us a chance to put it side by side with the Kubi we recently offered on the menu. Kubi sits right next door to Danche and is actually processed at there too. However they have different growing and drying conditions: Kubi gets more shade cover than this Danche lot. The difference shows up in the cup, and even in bean size and density.

Processing here is the same as Kubi: cherry floated, pulped, and fermented underwater for 24 hours, then dried on raised beds for 10 to 14 days. The trees are the same mix of local landrace and JARC selections you find all over Gedeo, mostly 74110 and 74158. Farms in this area run small, 1.5 to 2 hectares, typical for the region. Coffee itself is newer here than in other parts of Ethiopia, just a generation or two old, compared to areas where people still walk into the forest to harvest wild-growing trees and bring the cherry straight to a washing station.

The two coffees taste pretty different. Danche leans syrupy and sweet, with more malic acidity and the florals taking a back seat. Kubi is lighter and more delicate, floral forward layered with a stone fruit complexity.