Coffee Review: Heart Roasters, Ethiopia Yukro

Background: Ethiopian coffees vary from region to region, lot to lot, and by the processing methods of how the beans are washed and dried. They are most well known for being fruity and vibrant coffees.

Flavor: Brewed in a Chemex pot, the lightly roasted beans produced a citrusy brew with walnut aroma that tasted very much like tea. I didn't want to believe the tasting notes on the label when it said "lemonade and strawberries", but as this coffee cooled down it did indeed taste like drinking an Arnold Palmer after taking a bite of a strawberry!

Source: Heart opened in 2009 in Portland and is a "micro-roaster" focused on producing small batches of a small selection of single origin coffees from Latin America and Africa. They document the lives of their coffees on their website-- describing how the cherries are picked and processed, as well as photos of the factories and the names of the farmers.

Rating: This isn't the type of coffee you should add milk to, as it would mask the bright, citrus flavor and tart mouthfeel. There are many a times that call for a comforting milky coffee beverage, but this is not one of them. If you are willing to give a little extra attention and time into preparing this coffee as a pourover, you will be rewarded with a crisp, aromatic brew that actually gets sweeter, not bitter, as it cools. I appreciate Heart for breaking out the tasting notes of their coffees into flavors that we can all relate to: cranberry, watermelon, brown sugar, and red wine are much more familiar than "damp alfalfa" and "marron glacé" (yes, Blue Bottle, I'm talking about you).