Ethiopia Gera Genji Challa

Join us in reliving the thrill of winning Roaster of the Year with one of the coffees that made it possible.

This Ethiopia Gera Genji Challa has been something we have gone back to every year since it was a winning submission for Mostra to be 2020 Roaster of the Year. Each year has seen some variance in exactly what hits the palate, but the super high growing altitudes and exacting practices at the private mill have brought consistent quality our way. This year it is a little more floral, with silver needle tea leading into kefir lime note, Portuguese marmalade bridging that floral-fruity sweetness, and then a strong round finish of Orange Julius and Cinnabon icing. Sure, some variance in tasting notes from the exotic to the… well, to the mall, but when it’s accurate, it takes all kinds.

What makes Mostra tick like Mostra is that it takes all kinds of. Our founders range from a Hollywood actor to an acclaimed chef, classically trained opera singer to a veteran with an extensively successful history in assisted living. It’d be easy to take up your whole page with our story, so instead click this link to revisit our winning Roast Magazine article before more about this lovely coffee.

From Coffee Shrub:

An important distinction to be made about this lot of Genji Challa is that it's from a private mill nearby, not the cooperative related to Nano Challa. The coffee is still comprised of farmers from the same region as the coop coffee of years past ("Gure Genji"), and a lot of the same cooperative members are contributing to it as well. We also paid the same exact price for this coffee as we did coffee from the cooperative (coming a little later this year, with "coop" in the name), and being from the same region, the cup quality is indistinguishable. This is the second year of export for this particular wet mill. It's a project that's been in the making for several years now by a small exporter we work with in Addis. He got his start in the coffee trade through his father, whose long history working for an early exporter in Addis called Besse afforded him the opportunity to branch off into his own, smaller export business that has slowly grown into what it is today. Their wet mill is in Gera, near Kecho Anderecha. Growing altitudes range from about 1900 to 2100 meters above sea level, and most farmers have less than 1 hectare of coffee that they tend to.

Blind Assessment: Delicately aromatic, complex. Lilac, cocoa nib, pink grapefruit zest, shishito pepper, apricot in aroma and cup. Sweetly tart with juicy, bright acidity; plush, syrupy-smooth mouthfeel. Floral finish with cocoa undertones.

The Bottom Line: A nuanced, multilayered washed Ethiopia cup with spicy floral notes at its center and a throughline of cocoa nib.