The Coffee + My Thoughts

From Brian at Thoughtful Coffee:

Hi Friends,

I’m so glad to share our first Ethiopian lot of 2026 with MCL. After sampling this coffee (and a few others) in early May, I had a feeling that this year’s Ethiopian harvest would be exceptionally good — and from that point, I knew I wanted to showcase something from Ethiopia.

I picked this lot because it felt like a very well-done expression of a “natural anaerobic process” Ethiopian. Whenever I see that process, I immediately assume it’s something extremely wine-y and umami-heavy. This one was different. It tasted like blueberry compote with a mild blackberry jam sourness and a soft green tea finish. Maybe I just really like fruit juice with a light body. I don’t know — but I do know that I was jumping up and down fist-punching the air after tasting this on the sampling table. I emailed the exporter minutes later to make sure I secured a bag.

This lot was our first release on the P3000. I approached this with soft heat up front, high power through drying until 185C, then slowly tapered heat down for slow(er than usual) development. With smaller-sized beans, I’ve found that going softer at the front/back of the roast helps round out the end cup and reduce scorching.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this coffee. 🙂

Final Words

MCL is such a wonderful community, and I’m lucky to share my coffee with you all. Thank you to the organizers for having me. Thank you to the first-time buyers for giving us a shot. Thank you to our existing customers for the continued support.

Until next time! ✌️

Brian

Now onto the top placers:

In first place with 26 points: sean k!

In second place with 25 points: hofstee!

In third place with 23 points: 6-way tie between hawke, NotChet, keyhole, butternips, ThePuffin & randr01d!