Origin Story
Guji, Naturally
A full natural Ethiopian from Guji, decaffeinated with Royal's Swiss Water process
Harvest Season
| Varietal(s) | Indigenous heirloom cultivars |
|---|---|
| Processing | Full natural, sun-dried on raised beds, Royal Select Swiss Water decaffeination |
| Roast Level | Medium |
| Decaf | Yes — Swiss Water Process |
Roast Notes
Medium roast — Ethiopian naturals are volatile and decaf beans take heat faster, so we ease early and drop sooner, keeping the dried fruit from collapsing into generic roast.
The previous version of this page called the coffee washed. It is not. It is natural, and that single word accounts for most of what you taste.
A washed Ethiopian and a natural Ethiopian are different coffees, not the same coffee described two ways. Washed processing strips the fruit off the seed before drying, which leaves clarity — citrus, jasmine, tea-like brightness. Natural processing dries the cherry whole on raised beds, so the fruit dries around the seed and its sugars go into the bean. The result is dried fruit, carob, and something herbal and savory behind it. That is the coffee Royal bought, and that is the coffee this page describes.
The coffee comes from producers in Guji Zone, in the Oromia Region of southern Ethiopia, growing indigenous heirloom cultivars between 1,850 and 2,000 meters. Those are old varieties, not named cultivars planted to a formula, and they are the reason Guji tastes like Guji. Cherry is dried whole on raised beds, turned as it dries.
Royal selects the lots that go into this decaf based on cup profile and physical preparation, and specifically on how they express once decaffeinated. Natural Ethiopians are aromatic, and aroma is what tends to go missing in a harsh process. The Swiss Water process is designed to avoid that. Green coffee is hydrated to expand the beans, then introduced to Green Coffee Extract — water carrying concentrated coffee solubles. Caffeine leaves the coffee through osmosis while the flavor compounds stay behind. The green is re-dried and re-bagged, and the extract is filtered through proprietary carbon filters and recycled for the next run.
“The old copy called this washed. It is natural, and the difference is most of what you taste.”
Royal’s cup for this lot is dried fruit, carob, and herbaceous. Dried fruit comes first — not fresh berry, not jam, something closer to a dried apricot or a raisin than to fruit you would eat out of hand. Carob sits underneath, dark and slightly bitter. The herbal note runs through the middle and carries into the finish, green and savory, and it is the part that people who claim not to like Ethiopian coffee usually notice first.
We roast it medium. Ethiopian naturals are volatile — the fruit compounds that make them worth buying are the same ones that go bitter if you push too far into first crack. Decaffeinated beans also take heat faster than standard green, so this one will move quicker through the roaster than the same coffee with caffeine. A lighter hand early, an earlier drop, and the dried fruit holds together instead of collapsing into generic roast.
Brew it on pour-over. A V60 or Chemex gives the fruit and the herbal note room to separate, and 200°F at 1:16 is where we would start. The cup opens as it cools — the carob gets sweeter and the herbal note softens. Skip the French press; this is a coffee that wants clarity more than it wants weight.
We’ve been roasting coffee in Lakewood, Colorado under our neighborhood brand, Village Roaster, since 1979.
Buying green? The 2, 5 and 10 lb options are raw, unroasted coffee beans. They arrive as green coffee and cannot be brewed as they are. Roast them first, then brew.
