“Girma Eshetu Estate Ethiopia” from First Brand Coffee

First Branch is a small craft coffee roaster in South Royalton Vermont. It’s a great story and Royalton is a very small town with less than 700 people in the heart of Vermont. They have a coffee shop that doubles as beer tasting room, in the center of this small community. Like many other small coffee companies, First Branch’s coffeeshop is currently closed due to the COVID-19, which is helping curtail the virus.

roaster: First Branch Coffee; Royalton, VT
origin: Ethiopia
price: $18.95
tasting: 4/19/20

First Branch only roast Afician coffee beans, and as the regular readers of our reviews know, Ethiopia is considered the birthplace of coffee. However what a lot people don’t realize is how fertile and ideal Southern Ethiopia is for growing coffee beans. This coffee comes from the Girma Eshetu Estate which is in the Kaffee region of Ethiopia. It’s grown at a very high altitude at over 6,500ft about sea level, which is pretty much as high as you’ll find coffee being grown.

As a pour over coffee it was nice, it was actually pretty full bodied with lasting flavor. We certainly felt this was not a light roast coffee. You can taste notes of white tea, but not too many berries. It has a great coffee flavor to it and most people would enjoy it, making it a good coffee shop coffee.

Coffee Rating – 87pts.

This coffee even made a good espresso, with a fairly sweet and mineral flavor to start. It was a little stronger on the flavors as an espresso, with even some notes of sweet oranges.

Espresso Rating – 88pts.

Thanks to the team from First Branch for the coffee, visit them at www.firstbranchcoffee.com.

About our ratings – For both ratings (espresso & pour over) we’re looking at the flavor profile, along with drink-ability and balance. Reviewing the coffee as the espresso gives us extra insights into the nuanced flavors of the beans