Doyo Ethiopian by Intellegentsia (Cherry Coffee)

I will admit it freely that African coffees are among my favorites. I love the fruit notes and aromas given off by the beans. Intellgentsia Coffee recently offered a light roasted bean from the Doyo cooperative in Jimma Ethopia. Jimma is in the west-central part of Ethiopia and according to Intelligentsia's press release about this coffee, its a bit of an unexplored part of the Ethiopian Coffee scene. Only in the last few years with better washing procedures and handling has coffee harvested in this area come into its own.

 The full press release from Intellegentsia may be found here: http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/sites/default/files/coffee-product-docs/product-doc/Doyo_ethiopia.pdf

So, in an earlier post, I gave the opinion that Allegro's Ethiopian Adado was perhaps the best coffee I have had to date.  Intellegentsia's Doyo is at this same vaunted level.  The two coffees are a great contrast in outstanding flavor profiles; the Adado being more citric with berries while the Doyo has a rich deep cherry aroma.   Doyo is offered in 12oz packages with a one-way valve.




The light-roasted beans are of a fairly typical size for African sourced coffee beans.




I brewed these aromatic babies up in the french press at 190 degrees with 4 minutes of steeping.  A nice thick crema crema of heavenly goodness formed at the top, which thinned a bit when the grounds were stirred for a few seconds.  African beans seem to form thinner foamy tops than beans from other countries.


Doyo Ethiopian is awesome.  There are simply no other words I can come up with to describe the rich cherry flavors.