How to brew the Gigesa natural without wasting it

The Ethiopia Guji Shakiso Gigesa G1 is a natural process coffee that cupped at 85.88. Strawberry, dark chocolate, florals, black tea, honey and rose, with a syrupy body and a wine-like peppery finish.

It is also the easiest coffee we sell to get wrong, because everything that makes it good is fragile.

Start here

• Ratio: 1:16. Sixty grams of water for every four grams of coffee. Weigh it — volume measurements vary by more than you think as the grind changes.
• Water: 200 to 205°F. Off the boil for thirty seconds.
• Grind: Medium-fine, a little finer than you would use for a washed coffee.
• Time: Two and a half to three minutes total on a V60.

The mistake everyone makes

Brewing it too hot. Naturals carry a lot of fruit sugar, and above about 205°F you pull the tannins forward and the strawberry goes from jam to stalk. If your cup tastes dry at the back of the mouth, it is not the grind — drop the temperature five degrees before you touch anything else.

Why it tastes like that at all

The cherries are dried whole on raised beds for 15 to 18 days at the Gigesa washing station, which is owned and operated by the Yonis family and supplied by around 500 smallholder farmers working two to five hectares each. The fruit stays on the seed the whole time it dries, and the sugars migrate inward.

That is the entire reason it tastes of strawberry. It is also why it needs gentler treatment than a washed coffee: there is more sugar in there to scorch.

If you only own a drip machine

You are fine. Use the same ratio, grind a touch coarser, and make sure the machine actually reaches temperature — most cheap ones do not, which for this coffee is a happy accident.