Crown Jewel Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Dumerso Double Washed CJ1495 – 28055 – SPOT RCWHSE

Position Spot

Boxes 0

Warehouses Oakland

Flavor Profile Jasmine, Lychee, Kaffir leaf, Lemongrass

Check out our Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Grades

Out of stock

Overview 

This is a traditional washed coffee from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia, produced by contributing smallholder farmers to the Dumerso Washing Station under the guidance of the mill’s owner, Hirut Berhanu. 

The flavor profile is elegant, effervescent, and exactly what you’d expect from an exceptional Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, including strong floral notes of rose and honeysuckle, citric flavors like lemon and orange, and a delicate honeyed sweetness accompanied by notes of apricot and mild berry. 

Our roasters found the coffee to accept the challenge of quick, hot roasting profiles and to reach first crack with audible drama. 

When brewed, our baristas favored a down-dosed pour-over with slightly finer grind and are planning to dial the coffee as espresso in the coming weeks. 

Taste Analysis by Chris Kornman 

A true Yirgacheffe in origin, this coffee from the Dumerso washing station does not disappoint in flavor. Coveted washed Grade 1 coffees from the region have long been renowned for their florality, citric vibrance, and elegant sweetness. 

This elegant offering stunned us on the cupping table with strong notes of honeysuckle and rose, punctuated by lemon and orange acidity, and distinct hints of sweet berries and apricot in the background. A pervasive honey-like sweetness ties the experience together along with a silky-smooth mouthfeel. 

While our analysis here has focused on brewing via filtered drip coffee and as immersion extraction at the cupping table, we’ll be taking this to the espresso bar in coming weeks and serving it up under pressurized extraction. As with other great Ethiopian coffees, ultimately its uncommon effervescence and harmonious balance make for an extraordinary cup no matter how you choose to roast and brew it. 

 

Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger 

Dumerso is a private washing station located just north of the town of Yirga Chefe, in the heart of the coveted Gedeo Zone—the narrow section of highland plateau dense with savvy farmers and fiercely competitive processors whose coffee is known the world over as “Yirgacheffe.” The Gedeo region is named after the Gedeo people who are indigenous to this area. As a coffee terroir, Yirgacheffe has for decades been considered a benchmark for beauty and complexity in arabica coffee — known for being beguilingly ornate and jasmine-like when fully washed, and seductively punchy and sweet when sundried — and hardly requires an introduction. 

The Dumerso mill is owned by Hirut Berhanu, a woman with years of experience in coffee processing and logistics, including 5 years with the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), where she was a member and gained experience in Ethiopia’s grading and export marketplace. Hirut originally acquired the Dumerso station in 2010. Dumerso was originally established in 1998, but it had never been fully operational. Within three years Hirut had the station completely transformed, and 2013 was the first year Dumerso opened for business. The station now employs over 400 individuals during harvest season, 95% of whom are women, as well as a site manager and quality specialist, Abenet Alemu, who is responsible for maintaining the cup quality the area is famous for. Abenet was born and raised in Yirgacheffe, so his knowledge of local coffee systems and traditions is deep. As a result, in addition to his task of optimizing local quality through processing, he has a critical role to play in community relations on behalf of the station.  

In 2014 Hirut and her sister, Mahder Berhanu, formulated Dumerso Industrial Trading PLC, a milling, roasting, and exporting entity capable of placing their own coffees directly in the international market.  During harvest farmers deliver ripe cherries daily to the Dumerso mill. Processing begins at 6pm where the coffee is depulped and the parchment floated for density and as a pre-wash prior to fermentation. Fermentation is done underwater in open tanks for 36-48 hours depending on the day’s local temperatures. Then the fermentation water is drained, during which the parchment coffee is briefly washed, and the clean parchment is moved to raised beds to dry. Drying takes 9-11 days depending on the day’s local temperatures, during which the parchment is consistently tossed and rotated, but always kept at a maximum 3cm of depth. Final moisture at Dumerso is typically 9.5-11.5%. 

Now that coffee processing and exporting is a well-run operation, the team at Dumerso Industrial Trading PLC is setting their sights on farmer benefits. Last harvest they achieved both organic and Rain Forest Alliance certification for the station, and they are currently undertaking a project to establish a local plant to convert coffee parchment into a kind of pressed firewood, as a way of boosting income for the station to distribute to growers and to help local farmers rely less on local forests for their daily source of fire. They have also financed the installation of local power equipment that supplies the majority of electricity to local residents. Hirut and Mahder also provide financial loans and healthcare for permanent staff, and lodging and accommodations for all seasonal washing station workers.    

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman 

It always strikes me as funny how neighboring nations Ethiopia and Kenya share so many coffee idiosyncrasies (national auction systems, extraordinary recognition in specialty markets, similar harvest & arrival timelines, and common green metrics like high density and low moisture) and yet also are often so different. High value coffee from Kenya tends to be large in size, while Ethiopian coffees are almost always tiny, like this washed Dumerso, sorted to almost exclusively 14-16 screens.  

This true Yirgacheffe meets the expectations across the board on green metrics, with low moisture figures and high density, though it does have an occasional piece of parchment visible from time to time. That should fly off with the chaff in your roaster and won’t likely cause many problems.  

As far as plant types are concerned, the default “indigenous” designation for Ethiopian coffees doesn’t really do justice to the wide variety and significant agronomic work that’s been poured into the cultivars commonly grown in the country. In places like Yirgacheffe, smallholders usually grow a mix of a few controlled varieties which were either selected from wild populations for positive characteristics or bred specifically to suit a regional idiosyncrasy (such as rust, berry disease, or climate). While you won’t find legacy cultivars like Bourbon or hybrids like Catimor here, there is usually a small grouping of favored trees grown throughout the region. Landraces, like those we find more commonly as “forest coffees” in the west of the country, are generally only present as manicured selections in the south.   

 

Diedrich Analysis by Doris Garrido  

A clean cup of coffee with orange blossom, berries, peach and tropical fruits, a sweet and floral coffee that I recommend taking while it lasts, this is an impeccable coffee from Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Dumerso.  

The last few months I have been intrigued by the density in various African coffees I was roasting, and in my last few roasts I set the goal of keeping the juiciness in the coffee by doing short roasts. What I mean by this is using moisture as much as I can during Maillard looking to find the fruity flavors. I have succeeded in many cases, of course in some others I have gotten too far and ended up deleting the good floral flavors, but for Ethiopia Yirgacheffe this worked well!  

As usual I believe that there’s always room to improve a profile and this is also the case, I’ll explain why; bear with me. I roast this Yirgacheffe in 7:46 minutes, a short roast for me. I have spent 47.55% on the drying phase, 35.18% on Yellowing and 17.21% of the roast in post development. As for my gas, I started with a 100% charging temperature of 431F. (5.5 lb. batch) The turning point started at minute 1:22 / 196.8F. On my last few roasts, I have taken gas decisions by watching exhaust temperature, and bean rate of rise, and in this roast, I start lowering at minute 3:16 when my exhaust reaches 434F and bean rate of rise of 50/60 seconds. 

Then I lowered the gas to 30% at minute 4. The temperature started dropping and it was time to start adding air flow, first 50% but almost immediately to 100%. And here is where I would make some changes. I have been experimenting with air lately and I wanted to start air at this stage in the middle of Maillard with this idea in my mind of keeping the moisture to the last minute. In some cases, it works, but I feel that adding air even before color change it may turns into a smooth and cleaner coffee, I will not say that this one was not, on the cupping table it tastes floral and clean, but I have been brewing it on a V60 and I am quite sure with that improvement will show up on the final cup. 

For the final phase of roasting, coffee cracked loud and clear at 382.9F, starting with a couple of cracks but getting louder soon. 1:21 seconds for post development and dropped it at 396.2F. 

As a unanimous decision, this coffee entered the crown jewel program right away and we could not let it pass without serving it as espresso here at The Crown, you will find it on the menu in the following weeks, do not miss it.  

 

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Generally, we have good results starting our 500g roasts with 428F preheating, P6 power, F2 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

At long last, arrivals from Ethiopia are beginning to flow! Dumerso has been a favorite producer of mine for many years and this latest offering from them is a hole in one, which is par for the course. I’ll preface my game plan below by saying that these small beans might need a push to get rolling, but not to keep rolling. 

I started here with that hefty push at P8, with a charge temperature of 437F and F2 fan speed, which I decreased to F1 at Turning Point. After a minute, I increased to F3 and cut heat application to P7 to begin the draw downwards into Maillard. As yellowing/Maillard began at 4:05 / 325F, I increased fan further to F4 and decreased power a little later to P6 to allow a goodly amount of time in Maillard. I would generally not increase fan speed any further until crack, but this coffee showed no sign of slowing down, so I increased to F5 at 7:15 / 370F, but this move was not as effective as I would have liked! Even an adjustment down to P5 before first crack at 8:37 / 385F didn’t quench my Rate of Rise as much as I needed. Crack on this coffee was late for me, at 390F, but my earlier moves finally paid off and I was able to spend a good amount of time in Post-Crack development, getting all the beautiful sugars to develop before stopping the roast at 395F.  

The flavor of late-roast spike in rate of rise really was present in this roast – I can’t deny it. I suggest taking a more gentle approach than you see below as you move towards first crack, which is saying a lot. These small beans really don’t need too much more push once you get past yellowing, and will continue to tumble along towards first crack almost autonomously in the Bullet.  

In the end, the cup really opened up when it cooled, and that roasty flavor completely subsided. What was at first only dark chocolate developed into deep blackberry, grape juice, and tamarind with a touch of basil as a topnote. This is a glorious coffee, and you’ll have a fine time roasting it – just be gentle!  

 

Brew Analysis by MJ Smith 

Start your engines! Run, don’t walk! We’ve got another incredible Ethiopian coffee coming in hot! This lot from the Dumerso coffee mill outside of Yirgacheffe is the perfect complement to these warm end-of-summer days as the fall breeze starts to creep in. We brewed this on several different devices, from the full immersion Clever to the steep coned P70 from Saint Anthony’s, and then ending up on the Beehouse, which was collectively our favorite. 

I started on the Clever with a slightly higher dose of 20g because I just wanted to first see how this coffee held up with a full immersion method. Initially, it was a bit roasty, but as it cooled, we were able to taste some pleasant notes of rose, balsamic, and citrus. I next decided to bring down the dose a bit to 19g, the grind up to 9.5, and use a thicker filter with the P90 by Saint Anthony and was delighted with what Colin described as “effervescence!!!” I picked up some tasty notes of caramel apple, rose water, chocolate wafer, and lemon-lime.  

Even though we all really enjoyed the P90 brew, we decided we weren’t quite caffeinated enough and brewed up another cup using the adorable Beehouse. In an attempt to bring out some more of the delicate floral and citrus notes, we brought the dose down even further, to 18g, and dropped the grind to 8.5. Instantly, with our first sips, we all decided this was our favorite of the three. It was like a spoonful of honey, followed up with bright lemon, nectarine, with a finish like walking through a garden of roses, violets, and lilac. 

Ethiopia season is always one of my favorite times of year, and this coffee did. not. disappoint! When brewing this coffee, we would recommend a lower dose and a beautiful, sunny day in the park with a good book. I would also be interested to try it iced! It would probably be bit too delicate to enjoy as a cold brew, but I think it could really shine as an iced pour-over. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!