Wush Wush

Tasting Notes: Overripe peach, dried strawberry in light roast; Cola, elephant heart plum in medium roast Cupping Score: 93 Bean Weight: 12 & 16 oz Let’s begin by saying Wush Wush is unlike any coffee we’ve tasted. In the past 5-7 years it has ranked from No. 3 to No. 14 in the world’s best-rated cuppings. An Ethiopian Grade 1, grown at more than 7,500 feet, It has scored impressively from 96 to 92 points. Compared to the floral, tea-like Geisha’s at $65 per bag, Wush Wush is palate-twisting and evolving cup as it cools.  A 96-hour anaerobic fermentation takes this wild and heirloom plant to a level of complexity rarely found in coffee. The light roast is not for everyone — piquant with a sour-cherry finish — medium roast was loaded with Cola and rich, red plum that was overdue. Your sensory journey will likely be like ours: the roasted beans greet you with earthy flavors of walnut and smoked vanilla leaf; the fourth or fifth day beyond roast date the aroma of wild mixed and fermented fruit evokes a meaty pinot noir; the non-uniformity of color breaks all the rules, but the beauty is explained in that complexity; we ground the light roast fine, not quite espresso, to brew a pour over (Siphon, AeroPress are outstanding!) and used hotter water at 208F for a full extraction; this resulted in a red-honey hue in the cup; first impressions are a tea-like texture (use 8-10% more grind in your ratio for richer entry flavor) but sticky sweet, almost overripe fruit; as it cools, flavors evolve to feel richer but then at 100 degrees or cooler, it turns to unmistakable liqueur — unlike any coffee we’ve had. Cold brew will create yet another dimension all together. As for espresso, we ground finer than normal for a medium bean, and of course much finer than a darker bean as the darker the roast the more porous the grind and deeper the extraction.  It was a successful shot, clearly a fruited Cadbury chocolate in the cup. More profiling led us to offer a medium roast, and it continued a trend in flavor movement.  We ground at 5 out of 10 coarse for pour over. Our first 120g of water at 195F, we let bloom for 1 minute.  We lowered the water temp to 170F and dropped the remaining 120g of water.  We used 20g of beans. Cola is distinguished before overripe plum kicks in, and the medium roast is very smooth on the finish, which still holds on to an effervescence. The cherry aftertaste is not sour and leaves us with a wonderful impression. If you sweeten your coffee, experiment with less — this gets very sweet quickly.