What We Are Brewing : Mother Tongue Coffee

From the high elevation of Ethiopia’s mountain region, to the hustle and bustle of a neighborhood cafe, a coffee bean encounters a great deal before making its way into a morning latte. Often spanning continents, from seed to cup, the journey each bean embarks on plays a huge role in the flavor and quality of the final product.

Here at Prima we try to stay mindful of all that goes into every brew — from the hands picking individual coffee cherries at peak ripeness, to the hardworking individuals washing and processing the beans, to ultimately finding their way into the scoop of a roaster ready to unleash the unique flavors locked within — each role plays a vital part in every cup of coffee.

That being said, our new What We Are Brewing series not only brings you insight into what’s going on behind the scenes at Prima — allowing us to show you what coffees and brewers we loving at the moment, but also giving a little more insight, beyond flavor, into the origins of the coffees and the people that make it happen.

This month we are highlighting a new roaster, a new coffee, and a new recipe. So let’s get brewing!

This month’s roaster, Mother Tongue Coffee, is located on the other side of the country along the Golden Coast in Oakland, California. Mother Tongue was launched by the one and only Jen Apodaca, a roaster with a laundry list of accomplishments under her belt. Among those are earning the title of 2019 US Cup Tasters Champion, running Pulley Collective in West Oakland — an organization that enables coffee brands to roast and develop their coffee programs in a low risk and low-cost way — as well as being the CEO and Founder of #shestheroaster which promotes and encourages self-identifying women in the coffee industry to become professional roasters.

Our featured coffee of the month is Daniel Mijane Halo Hartume out of Gedeb, Ethiopia. Gedeb is located within Ethiopia’s Gedeo Zone — home to some of the most sought-after coffee in the world, setting the standard of quality while boasting beautiful notes of jasmine and complex sweetness. The coffee is washed and processed at the Halo Hartume washing station, one of two family owned washing stations run by Daniel Mijane. From there, through a relationship with Royal Coffee, they are able to export their coffee across the globe — including to Mother Tongue.

According to Mother Tongue, this beautiful washed Ethiopian tastes of jasmine and peach rings, flavor notes often evident, when roasted well, in coffees from that part of the world. Here at Prima, we immediately detected the notes of jasmine in both flavor and aroma. However, the juicy sweetness of peach rings is prominent as well.