I've found 2010 to be a tricky year for sourcing Ethiopian coffee. The overall quality of offers I've encountered has gone down (while prices have, you might guess, gone up), and I went through a fair amount of samples before I found this one. Like last year's offering, it is a fairly traded washed coffee from the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union. It's an interesting coffee, with nice, and somewhat subtle, perfumed and orange-y aromatics. (A few cups have had a really strong wet aroma that resembles orange juice.) But its primary attribute is a black tea-like flavor. Tea is a common descriptor for washed coffees from Ethiopia, but in this particular lot, It is unmistakeable, and quite pleasant (if you like tea). What's also of interest is what I would call a "savory" component. The coffee has plenty of sweetness, but there is also a kind of "brothy" complexity in the flavor. It's not as wierd as it might sound. It doesn't taste like beef stew or anything. Rather, it's a quality that I would guess appeals to our fifth taste sense: "umami." (Sweet, salt, bitter and sour are the other, more commonly referred to ones.) And honestly, if I didn't mention it, you might not have even noticed it. But back to qualities that aren't so scary. It's got good body for a washed Ethiopia, a soft and round (rather than sharp) acidity, and will often show lots of milk chocolate in the finish. It's good.