Shakisso

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The beautiful country of Ethiopia never ceases to amaze me. Not only are the coffees from this country amazing, but the incredible history of Ethiopia gets more captivating to me each year. I had one insight to this incredible antiquity and culture when visiting Ethiopia recently. I was tasting coffees in Addis Ababa, and in Oromia's tasting room, I stumbled across a wonderfully complex and beautiful coffee from the region of Sidama in southern Ethiopia. The tray was marked only "Moredocof." It was fragrant and sweet, with a particularly intense and beautiful take on the classic Southern Ethiopian honey-lemon taste.

Just as I began to ask about this mysterious Moredocof, in walked a larger-than-life Ethiopian man with a loud laugh, wild eyes, and wearing a floppy fisherman's hat. This was Haile, the leader of the Mordecof farmer's cooperative of Shakisso. Haile is not only the eccentric and charismatic leader of this group of farmers, he also owns the largest farm in the cooperative. I complimented him on the coffee, and he spontaneously hugged me as he began to tell me all about it. The whole room fell silent and listened as he loudly regaled us with the story.

Shakisso is in the Dewa valley, in the South of Sidama, an area known for its high, forested, lush mountains and delicious coffees. The farther south you go, the more remote it gets; and the Dewa valley is about as deep into the ancient Ethiopian mountain forests as you can go. In ancient times, the people of Sidama were known as "the people who live in baskets," because the traditional house in this area looks like a giant, upturned reed basket. When I say ancient, I mean it: tradition here goes way back before recorded history, and the people from this region were known to even the ancient Greeks and Egyptians as an ancient, mysterious community. In those days, the Southern Ethiopians were renowned for their secret sources of gold, hidden in the mysterious forested mountains.

Now, according to Haile, the lost gold mines of Solomon are in South Sidama, and in fact are right next to his farm. He told me this in a conspiratorial tone, and explained that this is why he calls Shakisso coffee "the Gold of Ethiopia." The people in this area often find gold in the streams that run through the forest! I don’t know about ancient lost gold troves, but I agree that the coffee is a treasure in itself. The farmers here plant their farms with coffee they select from the wild forests, so this is really semi-cultivated wild coffee. The coffee is carefully hand-washed and dried on wooden tables in the Southern Ethiopian sun. It represents one of the truest and most authentic styles of Ethiopian coffee there is, from the primeval home of coffee itself. Pretty incredible story, pretty incredible coffee.

The coffee is brisk and fragrant, overflowing with notes of honey, jasmine, sweet citrus, tea, and strawberry, with just a hint of chocolate. All this creates a bright, shining, (golden?) flavor, packed with South Sidama sunshine.

-Peter

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Shakisso Natural Sundried JANUARY FEATURED COFFEE Sidama, Ethiopia Certified Organic • Shade-Grown Lovingly hand picked and sun dried by the skilled farmers of Shakisso, this intensely flavorful natural-process coffee shines with bright notes of ripe berries above luscious chocolate undertones. Just as with our washed-process lot from Shakisso, this natural sundried coffee is made up of both cultivated and wild coffee varieties, resulting in a remarkably complex cup bearing the attributes of each. View Map. $11.95 (per 12 oz bag)