Blind Assessment:

Delicate, sweetly tart. Strawberry, caramel, musk, cocoa butter, magnolia in aroma and cup. Quietly tart-leaning structure with sweet undertones; plush, syrupy body. The perfumy, almost musk-like finish is characterized by tart fruit notes in the short and cocoa butter in the long.

Notes:

This coffee tied for the second-highest rating in a tasting of 71 organic-certified coffees from Africa for Coffee Review’s November 2017 tasting report. Produced by the METAD farm and mill in southern Ethiopia. Southern Ethiopia produces distinctive coffees from traditional varieties of Arabica long grown in the region. This is a “natural” or dry-processed version, meaning the beans were dried inside the fruit rather than after the fruit has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees. Certified USDA organic. Based in southern Oregon, Noble Coffee is a wholesale and retail roasting company focused on quality, social responsibility and environmental consciousness. Visit www.noblecoffeeroasting.com or call 541-488-3288 for more information.

The Bottom Line: A richly elegant cup that leads with deep fruit notes, as do many natural- processed coffees, though here the fruit is complicated by an engaging musk-like intrigue.