Ethiopia / Sookoo Guji
This delicious coffee is a prime example of the care and attention to detail put into sorting and processing by the Sookoo team and their producer partners.
Roast Level: Light
Tasting Notes: Blueberry Muffin, Passion Fruit, Green Tea
Learn More About This Coffee
Varieties: JARC, Local Landraces
Growing Altitude: 1,100-2,300 masl
Processing Method: Natural
Sookoo Coffee is a family owned company that produces and exports organic specialty and traceable coffee in the high altitudes and semi-forest of Guji, located in the South of Oromia Mountains of Ethiopia. The Guji region is home to top award-winning coffees both within Ethiopia and internationally.
Local farmers deliver fully ripened coffee cherries to Sookoo's cherry collection centers or washing/drying stations. Producers must harvest coffee cherries when they are fully ripe, as the ripest cherries yield beans with more sugar, which gives coffee beans a complex cup profile. It requires concentration, attention to detail, and commitment from the farmers.
Sookoo specializes in only natural processed coffees, and they work in three woredas (Shakkisso, Uraga, and Haro wolabo) of East Guji. They focus on working with small groups and providing education for the farmers – teaching good agricultural practices and best picking practices (only ripe red cherries). The freshly harvested cherries are delivered to the cherry collection centers or washing/drying stations where they go through intensive sorting to separate over and under-ripe fruit out from the lots. Then the coffee is immediately put out onto a raised African bed while it is still fresh to protect fermentation. Total drying times are around 21 – 28 days. The strict attention to detail here in the drying stage is what separates Ethiopia's, and especially Sookoo's, coffees from the rest of the world.
Because of the nature of drying the fruit around the seed, coffee processed this way is inherently packed with intense fruit flavors, but because of their specific protocols, coffees from Sookoo are particularly crisp and clean. You get all of the big fruit juice flavors and none of the murky over-fermented or over-ripe fruit flavors that can sometimes accompany a naturally processed coffee.
The body of their micro-lots are silky (mouth coating but not too heavy) and the acidity is playful and juicy.
