Finished a batch of Ethiopian 2 days ago...

... and now we're into a bag of Chiapas. 

For a couple years Ethiopian has been a favorite of ours and I had accumulated a variety of samples. Generally it has great appeal to us because of the interesting flavors that disclose themselves as the cup cools. My impression is that most have been sweet and have a wonderful taste for a cool day. I genuinely wish I had the training to describe each of those unique flavors that appear sequentially as I sip my way to the bottom of the cup!

The map above sticks a pin where the Guji district is (thank you Google Maps!). It looks to be in the far western part of Ethiopia. Google Maps got no hit on Anasora in the Guji district so I have to guess that most be the processing facility or the coffee broker. From the shading it appears to be a mountainous region which is what we should expect for a coffee grower.

Location aside, this sample of Ethiopia Guji Anasora (Ana Sora?) was a winner. Other than a few grams of greens left in the bag, I pretty much polished it off. Sorry to see it go. 

When I looked at the map I noticed a couple things: Ethiopia has no seaport. So all shipments of coffee have to go through other countries to get to the US (air transport of coffee seems very unlikely because of cost!). 

The other thing is that Yemen is not far away. And Yemen os another 'sleeper' in terms of a little known but wonderful source of coffee. However, that industry is all but dead thanks to the civil war raging in that country. Read "The Monk of Mokka" to get a feel for the deterioration of that coffee resource.

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