Overview
Bookkisa is the name of the sub kebele (smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia, like a neighborhood) where this collective of farmers live. The producer group consists of around 35 growers who all deliver cherry to a centralized drying station where it is kept separate throughout the various stages of drying, sorting, and preparing for export. Sookoo Coffee has established five producer groups within the Odo Shakiso woreda of the Guji Zone, focusing on small lot separations and providing ongoing education for the farmers - teaching proper farm maintenance and picking practices. If you’ve enjoyed our offerings from Biranu Dulo or Daannisa in the past, then you have already experienced some of the excellent coffees from Sookoo which clearly present an extreme attention to detail in the processing.
Bookkisa no doubt offers all of the explosive fruits and juice-like feel that make natural Ethiopian coffees some of our most popular offerings! Yet, as we’ve come to expect from Sookoo, this coffee also presents some of the highest levels of flavor clarity that we find with natural processing. A creamy, milk chocolate forward sweetness rounds out the experience, making this offering quite approachable and flexible across many brewing methods. We’re tasting: raspberry jam, cherry pie, peach cobbler, dried mango, potpourri, dark honey, brown sugar, vanilla, milk chocolate, sweet tea
Relationship
Our relationship with Ture is a true testament of what’s possible in today’s age of the internet. The initial connection was established when he reached out to our green coffee buyer on instagram back in December of 2018. We soon learned that he used to be the manager for a dry-processing station we purchased from many years ago, Guji Highlands. Ture explained how he had decided to start his own company with a huge focus on quality and transparency. And the rest is history. Ever since that first season, we’ve been blown away by nearly all samples we’ve tasted! They were (and still are) some of the cleanest natural processed coffees we’ve ever, hands down. It’s no surprise that in specialty coffee circles he’s been lovingly nicknamed The King of Guji.
Our primary relationship for all things Sookoo related is directly with Ture. After coffees are selected and prices are agreed upon each year, we then transition into working closely with Tim Hill at Atlantic Specialty Coffee. They handle the logistics of moving the coffee across the ocean, importing, and warehousing for us throughout the year.
Processing
The strict attention to detail in the drying stage is what separates Ture Waji’s coffees from the rest of the pack. There are two key components to his technique - (a) lots of moving and turning of the coffees, a minimum of six times per day and (b) a very shallow bed of cherries, a maximum of only one inch.
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 these 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.
Brewing
Brewing this coffee is quite versatile! Any way you slice it, you’re in for a mouthful of fruit flavor and a lot of natural sweetness. Finer grinds tend to bring out a fuller body and more intense flavors. You’ll find the flavor becomes more concentrated, like raspberry jam and chocolate. Coarser grinds will boost the flavor clarity and complexity - so in addition to berries and chocolate, you should find some tropical fruit and flowers in the cup.
If your brew is watery, lacking sweetness, and sour like under ripe berries - try grinding finer.
If your brew is drying and the flavors are muddled and unclear, like oversteeped black tea or cocoa powder - try grinding coarser.
