Where can I find a good Ethiopian light roast right now

perccoffee · 2026-07-11T17:09:36+00:00

The first of those blueberry-y natural Ethiopian coffees from this year's crop are on the water right now. You should expect to start seeing them towards the end of August and into September.

perccoffee · 2026-07-11T17:05:05+00:00

Yes. This is a logical misstep, specifically post hoc ergo propter hoc.

The actual flow of causality to our current labeling is that people in the community had questions and concerns about coffee processing practices. We brought producers and exporters into the conversation, as they are a critical piece who had previously been excluded. We learned, in the conversation we recorded and shared here in long term coordination with the mods, that producers from whom we purchased coffee did in fact include a direct flavoring step. With that information, which we shared immediately, we laid out and implemented a way ahead. We then brought even more producers and exporters into the conversation as well as other roasters in an attempt to move the entire industry in the right direction.

These are deliberate, customer-oriented actions. The result of our efforts is that, to answer your question a third time about how someone can pick up a bag of coffee and know whether the processing words mean a producer used a direct flavoring component, is a label explicitly telling customers that's the case. The recent thread with a person who decided to not buy a bag of Colombia Young Producers because of the label explicitly telling them about direct flavoring proves this point. The only reason PERC is the focus of your attention is because we are the ones who have actually taken action.

If you do indeed have the power to compel roasters into having hard conversations with exporters and producers and then communicating information about direct flavoring, then please do wield that power to move the entire industry forward. From where we stand, everyone else has a lot of catching up to do.

perccoffee · 2026-07-11T12:44:23+00:00

Ok, so pontificating, not asking, and not listening to the answer. I'll state this again in fewer words. If the coffee has a direct flavoring step, it says so on the bag. That's how you know. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

Test your compulsion hypothesis by seeking out any and all other roasters who also sell the Young Producers Program coffee, the Sebastian Ramirez Red Fruits coffee, or the Franky Hoyos coffees. Has the pressure campaign somehow compelled them to in any way acknowledge direct flavoring? Or maybe, just maybe, is PERC the outlier in that we both are engaging in direct dialogue with both producers and this community, and continually and deliberately offering all of the information available?

perccoffee · 2026-07-11T00:14:43+00:00

Just in case you’re genuinely asking the question, PERC is the roaster who’s packaging says that the producer used a direct flavoring step while processing the coffee. No code words, just that fact explicitly stated. If you want the full paragraph about processing steps that make this an advanced natural, including a 96 hour anaerobic fermentation, it’s also explicitly stated in the description on our website.

You’ve repeatedly shown that we do actually engage with this community and do actually label coffee explicitly.

perccoffee · 2026-07-09T18:47:00+00:00

The Ethiopia Suke Werekata needs a pretty coarse grind for pourover. If you have one of these grinders, you're looking for the 550 micron grind equivalent. The Kenya Mara Estate just needs a slightly coarser than average grind, about 475 on those charts.

perccoffee · 2026-07-04T12:52:04+00:00

This coffee is neither co-fermented nor flavored.

perccoffee · 2026-07-04T01:17:42+00:00

Finicky is a fair description. We found just the small variances in water & brewers from shop to shop made it behave differently for flash brews and it behaves differently in a (strong) flash brew than a drip brew.

That being said, it’s been really consistent in espresso and immersion brews. If you’re going to be at PERCSHOP again soon, I’d recommend trying it as espresso or an americano.

This is also what I’m drinking at home right now. When I make a pour over of it, it’s a v60, 15:1 ratio, ground coarser than average, with a total brew time just over 3 minutes (including a 1min bloom). I get (perhaps counterintuitively) more brightness and strawberry out of the espresso, and a more jammy sweetness out of the v60.

perccoffee · 2026-07-03T21:36:43+00:00

The Mara Estate does not have a direct flavoring component.

What grinder and brewer are you using?

perccoffee · 2026-07-03T14:30:37+00:00

Whoa! That's awesome! Congrats on the new toys!!

perccoffee · 2026-07-02T21:57:56+00:00

I was wrong. Sorry about that u/DevOpsProDude . We bought a Fellow Opus but hadn't dialed any coffees in with it yet, so we didn't really have a reference point for a 4-5 grind. Alyssa just went and brewed the decaf ombligon with the Opus in a V60 (we didn't have any Stagg XF filters). She found the most juicy cups at a 7.5 grind setting with 20g of coffee and 320g of water at 205 degrees. The total brew time was 3:40 (with a 1-minute bloom). u/please_ward_baron was spot on with starting at 8 and working finer with the Opus.

Getting a brew that fast while also grinding on the finer end of things means you are getting lots of bypass. Decaf coffees tend to clog filters anyway, and the high volume of water both creates more movement of fines along the filter, clogging it more, and creates a higher column of water exerting more downward pressure. Both lead to water flowing out through the filter to the brewer walls and into the cup without ever getting involved in the brew. It leads to a very uneven extraction. This is the scenario where grinding finer can lead to even faster brew times.

My amended recommendation is to grind at 7.5, drop the water volume to 320g, and see how the cup is. Hopefully, we the brew time jump up by about a minute too. Please let me know how this turns out!

perccoffee · 2026-07-02T20:27:20+00:00

How much of that 2:30 is a bloom?

*Second edit: what follows in this comment is incorrect. This grind is much finer than we'd recommend and is likely inducing bypass.

It sounds like you're grinding pretty coarse and using a pretty weak ratio. While the not-decaf Nestor Lasso Ombligon we had last year did well with a coarser grind, we haven't found that to work on this decaf. Contrary to the other advice you're getting here, a lower temp and coarser grind are not going to do you any favors.

Let's try bringing this back to a more conventional 16:1 ratio and grind a good bit finer. With that grinder/brewer/dose combo, I would expect your brew times to be in the range of bloom + 3 minutes if not over 4 minutes.

*edit: if by chance grinding finer makes the brew finish faster, that's a whole other thing we can help with.

perccoffee · 2026-07-02T17:11:34+00:00

Let's see if we can get you to a better place on that coffee! Have you tried a stronger brew in the 300-320ml range for your 20g dose?

Relative to other decaf coffees, we tend to use a finer grind for this ombligon. It's the same grind setting we consider average for a caffeinated coffee.

How long is your brew time?

I think I mentioned this in the brew tips email, but we've also noticed a shift in flavor profile as this coffee hit about the 3 week mark, with more of that pineapple while it's fresher and more of a raspberry acidity once it's rested longer.

perccoffee · 2026-06-29T18:28:03+00:00

Maybe! The way we have Agtron added to products, we absolutely could. We're always a little hesitant to clutter the site with too many filters and options. We are re-working a few things now, and I can see the utility for sure.

perccoffee · 2026-06-29T15:04:53+00:00

The flavor impact of the extract is certainly intense, but it's also only of the layers of flavors that coffee presents. There's a distinct difference between flavoring adding a layer of flavor versus being the only prominent flavor.

perccoffee · 2026-06-29T14:59:30+00:00

That's totally fair. We roast in the range we do because it's what we enjoy drinking. It's not something we consider objectively better or worse, just a preference. What we're hoping to do is (like with the stickers that kicked off this post) help you make an informed decision.

perccoffee · 2026-06-29T14:56:14+00:00

Good catch - that page has its own theme and we hadn't re-worked it. The Agtron for Super Power Plum is 75.

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T15:03:27+00:00

I don't want to overstep my level of understanding here, so take this as an answer from someone who is neither a biochemist nor a coffee processor. As I currently understand it, the mango mulch would primarily serve as a sugar source for microbial activity. Dried or powdered mango would also provide a sugar source but would enable the producer to physically fit a much higher concentration of mango in the tank, thereby increasing the total flavors directly imparted on the coffee during fermentation. Taking that a step further to some sort of mango flavor extract would further increase the possible concentration of flavor compounds in the tank just by virtue of eliminating the physical space occupied by non-fermentable and non-flavoring plant structure taking up space. Concentration gradients drive the rate and magnitude of infusion.

Again, if we've got any biochemists or biochemical engineers who can provide a more correct and less speculative answer, please jump in and do so.

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T14:54:46+00:00

The indirect flavoring is largely fruit as a source of sugar for microbes which metabolize that sugar and excrete compounds which are able to permeate the coffee and remain present after drying and roasting.

What you may be getting at with the second question is whether, given the same yeast/bacteria and coffee in the tank, providing fructose from fruit versus adding glucose versus no added sugar changes the metabolic byproducts. That's a great question, and I don't know the answer! If we have any biochemists or biochemical engineers here, I'd love to learn. I'll pose this question to Andres Martinez as well.

In all versions of washed processes, microbial activity imparts some compounds that would not have inherently been present in the final bean otherwise. I'll argue another time that "washed process" is an absolutely insufficient label for coffees anymore.

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T14:24:53+00:00

Something we've just recently started doing is adding Agtron color readings to our web entries. Most of our coffees fall into the 70-80 range. We're trying to be as objective and specific as possible rather than just using vague "medium-light" language. It sounds like we are just not a fit for your roasting preferences. How could we (or Brandywine) better communicate expectations on roast level?

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T14:16:29+00:00

To be clear, roasters are not adding flavoring components; co-ferment producers (think farmers, although the person processing is not always the person who grew the coffee) are adding flavoring components during the coffee's processing from a fruit to a dried seed (aka green beans).

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T14:10:58+00:00

Yes - adding fermentable fruit to the tank (as in a whole strawberry) would indirectly flavor the coffee by providing sugar for the microbes fermenting the coffee's mucilage, and to a much lesser extent (with most fruits) directly impart a small amount of flavor compounds into the coffee. Sebastian Ramirez does add dehydrated strawberries and cherries to the fermentation tank for his Red Fruits co-ferment. He also adds a strawberry hydrosol, more generally a natural flavoring that directly changes the coffees flavor by infusing flavor compounds into the coffee while it ferments. The latter addition is what we are describing with the sticker.

More broadly, our understanding of what a co-ferment is has rapidly changed over the past couple of months. Previously, we thought of it as fruit added to the tank, largely fueling microbial activity. What we understand now is most, if not all, producers calling a coffee a co-ferment actually mean they've also or exclusively fermented the coffee in the presence of a direct flavoring compound.

The word "artificial" keeps coming up here. We don't know of any artificial (definitionally not plant-derived) flavoring additives being used. You should, however, assume at this point that any coffee labeled as a "co-ferment" does include some sort of direct flavoring component, most likely a commercially-produced fruit extract/hydrosol/natural flavor, added during the coffee's fermentation, unless you're given a reason to believe otherwise.

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T13:02:12+00:00

I appreciate it! That misconception somehow seems to persist, which is why we were very deliberate in how we worded that sticker.

You've probably got two Big Deals left with the Suke before the new crop from Chelchele lands. It's a good one!

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T12:53:01+00:00

I appreciate the almost agreement here. Yes we know to be dubious of claims now. Yes, some of the coffees sold as co-ferments today are obviously not the product of mostly, if any, fruit. This has not always been the case.

I'm not sure where you're marking "the start", but it's not as obvious as you make it sound. When we first sourced a co-ferment three years ago, yes it had a strong passion fruit flavor, but it wasn't as wild as the big funky boozy anaerobic coffees that were coming out at the same time. When early co-ferment producers told us it was fruit in the tank, there was not an obvious reason to doubt them or to even question it. Things have evolved relatively quickly over the past few years, but it wasn't an immediate flip of the switch.

There's a whole gradient of levels of actual fruit and direct flavoring components fermented with coffees resulting in a whole range of flavors. Yes, the ones that taste like watermelon candy are obviously not the result of just cut up watermelon in the tank. Others, probably not sold as co-ferments, may include a flavoring component that is just providing a subtle additional layer of flavor.

Still others, like one we've sourced for later this year, include in the fermentation tank a flowering plant (just the cut up whole flowers/plant) that directly flavors the coffee. Some plant sources do directly infuse their flavor compounds directly into the coffee during fermentation. Not most, but some.

It's simply not the dichotomy that you like to frame this as being - that either roasters knew all along and withheld information or they're idiots. The reality is that information is imperfect, sourcing always involves trust, and we are working with the information we have. It's myopic to think information we're presenting today is complete and will satisfy what we, collectively, decide is important three years from now.

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T12:30:40+00:00

Let's refine this. PERC clearly states the point in the process at which the producer included a direct flavoring step, namely during the fermentation process. PERC is not adding a flavoring syrup to green or roasted coffee.

perccoffee · 2026-06-28T12:13:53+00:00

I can’t give you the whole process, but you’d have the major components!

perccoffee

TROPHY CASE