To say that this coffee has been keenly anticipated would be a bit of an understatement. We were very sad to see that this year's Rocko Mountain Reserve lot arrived in the UK with quality issues - but thrilled to secure this organic lot, Tariku - from the same washing station and very much in keeping with the Rocko imprint that we all love so much. 

Natural coffees from the Yirgacheffe region are undoubtedly amongst the most interesting and exciting coffees around and this one fits that bill perfectly. In the cup, you can expect huge booziness and a zinging lime acidity. The strawberry notes are less dominant than they were last year but they really come through in espresso and complement the acidity perfectly. 

This is coffee for the adventurous. It is wild and unsubtle. I hope you love it as much as we do. 


Tariku Mengesha is the sole owner and produced this natural coffee entirely on his farms, the farm is located throughout the Banko Chelchele kebele (neighbourhood) of Gedeb woreda, south of Yirgacheffe and just west of the bulgy border with the vast Oromia region.

Tariku applied the basic agronomic practices and keep the field free of any weeds. He grows pulse crops in his coffee field so as to maintain the fertility of the soil.

He processed the coffee with the help of Tesfaye Roba, first by soaking the cherries to remove all immature, floaters, overripe and foreign matter - and than drying on raised beds for 28 days.

While coffee is Mengesha’s primary income, which he uses to support his family that includes 10 children (3 boys and 7 girls), he also grows navy beans and false banana, called “enset,” which produce no edible fruit but whose root and heart ( rhizome and pseudostem, if you want to be botanically accurate) can be harvested. The average enset matures in four or five years, and the plant can provide around 80 lbs of starchy food, usually fermented underground for up to a year, after which the doughy substance can keep for up to a decade. While the fibers in the heart of the plant can be boiled, the most popular iteration is a fermented enset “bread” or “cheese,” called “kocho” – quite strong and foreign to the western palate, but a staple in Southern Ethiopia.

Origin:  Tariku Mengesha's farms. Gedeb Woreda, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
Varietals: Ethiopian Landrace

Rocko Mountain (Tariku)

Transforming mornings since 2012. Finest speciality coffee.

Rocko Mountain (Tariku)

0.0

Rocko Mountain (Tariku)