Gourmet coffee review: Ethiopian Elan Amaro Gayo

Our second batch of Kopi coffee arrived this morning, this time we got to taste Elan Amaro Gayo, an organic coffee from one of the oldest coffee producing countries, Ethiopia.

As with tea leaves and wine vineyards the greater the altitude the more distinctive the taste. Elan Amaro Gayo is grown at 1600m+ and is completely organic and sun dried in the natural method. This involves handpicking ripe coffee cherries and drying them in the sun for up to 4 weeks.

This coffee is produced and exported by Asnakech Thomas, the only female exporter of coffee from Ethiopia. Asnekech directs the profits of Elan Amaro Gayo to help fund local schools and medical programmes as well as clean water initiatives. Her company helps empower the women Ethiopia, her current coffee force is 80% women.

Like last time we got the ground coffee pack for our cafetiere. Kopi were good enough to give some description of what to look for in the coffee, toasted cereals and cherry when dry and the brewed cup will have sweeter and malty taste. We didn’t happen to have any Kej, Ethiopian mead, at hand but it is recommended to have a bit stirred in.

As the pseudo-coffee elite we kicked the habit of stirring in sugar and milk a long time ago and now demand a black, bitter brew, like Humphrey Bogart, but we have to say a dash of sugar really brought this coffee to life. It takes away a little bit of the ‘buttery’ after taste but helps bring out the blackberry tones that Kopi suggest can be found in Elan Amaro Gayo.

There were mixed opinions in the team about this coffee it really was a love or hate thing. It hit the spot for mid-morning, there was no real caffeine hit it was all about strong flavour and bit of lip smacking.

It’s best to sign up for your Kopi subscription well in advance so you won’t have to miss out; you’ll have a couple of weeks before the next lot comes out. For more information about Elan Amaro Gayo click here. May we just mention our thanks to Kopi for bringing Ethiopian coffee to our humble abode, especially grounds that come from such a noble institution as the one Asnakech is running.