Why We Love This Roast

Wush Wush! There’s been a lot of hype about Wush Wush over the past few years and we’re excited to be offering a second one from legendary producer Israel Degafa! Wush Wush is a rare Ethiopian heirloom variety named for where it came from: Wushwush, a small area in the southwest of Ethiopia near Jimma and Sidamo. Though rare, the Wush Wush variety is actually quite good in terms of potential production yield, as well as tolerance to drought, heavy rains, hot weather, and cold nights. 

This Wush Wush lot is particularly special as it underwent a 3 day natural anaerobic fermentation, meaning whole cherries were placed in sealed plastic bags to ferment for 3 days in cool, dry, open areas, and then placed on raised African beds to dry after those first 3 days. The cherries were checked daily during the 3 day fermentation to ensure evenness. 

If you tasted our previous Israel Degafa Wush Wush, that one had a 4 day natural anaerobic fermentation - the extra day of fermentation made that coffee taste a little more sour beer-like. The cherries for that coffee also came from Yirgacheffe whereas these ones are from Guji. With this coffee (the 3 day Guji), we are tasting concord grape juice, sangria, sour cherry, watermelon, and flowers. This coffee is very juicy, very bright, and very fruity, and it is exceptionally clean for an anaerobic - the funk/booze is extremely minimal.

Water Recommendation: 

For those of you who want to get every last drop of excellence out of this coffee, our preferred brewing water (at least for cupping) is full strength Third Wave Water (130ppm GH, 40ppm KH), though Rao/Perger water (90ppm GH, 42ppm KH) is not far behind.

Full-strength Third Wave Water gives a very sweet, juicy cup with the most grape and cherry flavor.

Half-strength Third Wave Water (65ppm GH, 20ppm KH), which is nearly identical to Lance Hedrick’s Light & Bright water (60ppm GH, 25ppm KH), gives a much more acid-driven cup profile that lacks sweetness and complexity. The florals are nice and soft with this water though.

Rao/Perger water gives an excellent flavor profile that is just a little less sweet and less grape-forward than full strength Third Wave Water. This water offers the most nuance and complexity.

Philadelphia water (Baxter water supply) filtered with a three-stage carbon system with a little softening (somewhat similar to what a Brita pitcher would do) also gives an excellent cup profile, most similar to full strength Third Wave Water, though there is a bit more generic brown “coffee-like” flavor to it.

If this is all very confusing—check out our blog post on water for coffee!

Processing Details from our Importer:

“Step 1

Make the cherry selection based on ripeness. Put the cherry on African beds for sorting/removal of unripe, overripe, Foreign matter, leaves, and others.

Step 2

After sorting put back cherries in PP bags and place them in cool dry open areas for targeted days. (for 3 days)

Step 3

Check the bags each day and makeup down placement of the bags once a day for proper natural fermentation.

Step 4

Move the fermented bags to African drying beds and then follow natural specialty protocols”