Peachy. Honeyed. Tea-like. This one’s a stunner.
We love Ethiopian coffees for their clarity and expression, and this Gedeb Danche Grade 1 is a beautiful example of what a well-handled natural can do.
Right away, we’re getting ripe white peach and a sweet, floral honeycomb note, all sitting on a clean, black tea-like structure. It’s fruity and sweet without tipping over into heavy or boozy. Everything stays balanced and keeps you coming back sip after sip.
This is a natural process coffee, meaning the whole coffee cherry is dried with the fruit still on the seed before it’s removed. That extra time with the fruit builds sweetness, body and fruit character in the cup. This lot was dried on raised beds for 7–10 days, which helps keep the drying even and the cup clean. In this case, that shows up as juicy stone fruit and a honeyed sweetness that still lets the terroir of Gedeb shine through.
From a sensory perspective, this coffee lands with:
- Juicy, sweet fruit acidity (think ripe white peach rather than sharp citrus)
- Tea-like structure with a silky, rounded body
- Floral, honeyed aromatics and a sweetness that lasts through the finish
- A clean, balanced finish with no one note overpowering the cup
This lot comes from more than 290 smallholder farmers in the Danche sub-region of Gedeb, in the Gedeo Zone of southern Ethiopia. The coffee is grown way up at around 2,190–2,270 metres, and the farmers cultivate a mix of heirloom varieties, including Wolisho, Kurume, Dega and the JARC selections 74110 and 74112. All that altitude and diversity is a big part of what makes this cup so layered.
We’ve roasted this one on the lighter side to protect that fruit and florality. Push it darker and you’d lose what makes this coffee special.
This coffee shines in pour over and drip, where you can really pick out the peach, honeycomb and tea notes. It’ll make a sweet, fruity espresso as well, but if you want to taste everything it has to offer, we’d recommend brewing it a little slower.
As always, this is 100% specialty coffee with no flavours added, just careful cultivation, processing and roasting bringing out what’s already there.
We’re digging this light roast specialty coffee. As always, you can feel good knowing you’re supporting small Canadian coffee roasters with each sip! Have any brew questions? Reach out to us with the chat or send us a message here.
ORIGIN: Ethiopia
REGION: Gedeb, Yirgacheffe
PROFILE: Light
NOTES: White Peach, Honeycomb, Black Tea
VARIETALS: Heirloom (Wolisho, Kurume, Dega, JARC 74110 & 74112)
PROCESS: Natural
ELEVATION: 2,190 – 2,270 MASL
Available in 340g, 850g or 2.2kg bags of whole bean coffee.
We recommend this light roast on pour over or drip coffee brewers.
