India Hulikere

Gettin' wild, but without gettin' too funky. We're kicking off 2023 Ethiopias at Huck with something a bit different from our friends at Snap!

Ethiopia's the birthplace of coffee, with unparalleled genetic diversity, plus unique terroir and processing that can produce super floral, citric washed coffees and the cleanest, juiciest, most berry- and tropical-forward naturals. We look forward to these coffees every year, and we're still looking forward to adding those to the roast lineup!

And Snap Coffees, a quality-focused exporter and washing station operator, has been a longtime partner for us at Huck. We've featured coffees from Snap's two washing stations in the kebele of Worka Chelbesa - the eponymous Worka Chelbesa station, plus the newer Danche station - for most of the last 5+ years, and coffees from within the Snap network often make up at least some, and sometimes all, of our flagship Phantom Limb Blend.

Over the past couple years, Snap has given its washing station managers the opportunity to experiment a bit with processing, and deviate a bit from the traditional washed and natural profiles. In this case Marcelo, one of the employees at Danche, pioneered a weird take on the washed process, keeping the coffee in-cherry, but in a sealed, cool environment, for 5 full days before undergoing a more typical washed process. Risky, but it works.

Earlier this year, we spent some time with Snap in Addis Adaba, tasting dozens of coffees from throughout their network. When we came across this one, it was "wow, wtf is this Amanuel?, we gotta have it" at first sip. And we were tasting samples blind, so even better that it came from a station we've bought from for years.

This one's combines what we love in both the best washed and natural Ethiopias - citrus and florality, plus bigger fruit and body - without some some of the funky wine, pushing vinegar, that we sometimes taste in super-long fermentations. We're tasting bright and juicy berry lemonade, honey, watermelon, and lavender florals in this banger - not our typical start to Ethiopia season, but we're very much into it!

Monte de Oro is back with the sweetness, adding a punch of natural-process fruitiness to our Central American coffees.

Finca Monte de Oro is Huck's other Guatemala sourcing relationship, and while we do put a lot of focus on the AProCafé Association, there's no shortage of other great coffee in the country. We started sourcing coffee from Mario 7 years ago after being introduced by a mutual friend, and from day one his innovative approach to processing has set his coffees apart.

Mario has traditionally produced both honey-processed and natural coffees, and until two years ago, we had always roasted either the honey process or a blend of natural and honey together. Over the past couple years though, due to some weird climatic variances towards the end of the 2022 harvest period,and the fact that honeys are just very labor-intensive, the farm  has decided to focus its efforts on the full natural process. The coffee’s delicious, and we’re on board. 

A big shoutout to Mario for experimenting and sharing knowledge with us on his farm. Mario and his team at Monte de Oro sweat all the details when it comes to picking, fermenting, and drying his coffee, and they’ve been happy to share the details with us. We in turn have shared some of that knowledge with other partners like AProCafé, so Mario’s coffee isn’t just excellent, but it helps create a rising tide for all the coffee we buy and roast from Guatemala. 

2023 Monte de Oro is big, sweet, fruity, and balanced, all at the same time. We’re tasting jammy red grape, citrus, and chocolate cake in this year's crop, and are stoked to have the goods from Mario back at our roastery