Ethiopia Sidamo Natural Shantawene
Info
Purchased from: Happy Mug Coffee Roasters
Origin: Sidamo, Ethiopia
Farm: Shantawene Village Co-op
Varietals: Heirloom
Grade: 1
Purchase Date: 2025-01-26
Purchase Cost: $35.75
Purchase Gram: 2274g
Used Gram: 1802g
Remaining Stock: 472g
Last Roasted: 2025-12-24
Link to original listing: Link
Purchased in Jan 2025 - Waiting on roaster arrival
Recommended notes on the bag from Happy Mug:
- Keep it light, 10 seconds beyond first crack to get fruit and sweetness
- Natural processed coffees need less heat and like high airflow
Description from website:
The Sidamo region of Ethiopia is a high mountainous area within the Yirgacheffe region, so the taste profiles tend to be similar, especially in the washed coffees. But this is a natural (dry-processed) Sidamo which tend to have red berry flavors and citrus fruit notes.
This one won 7th place in last year's Ethiopia Cup of Excellence. It is grown by a co-op of farmers in Shantawene Village who had their coffee processed at the Daye Bensa Mill. It is a sweet, true Sidamo with the characteristic fruity flavors. No earthiness or astringency, but juicy candy-like flavors of Strawberry, Watermelon. Some milk chocolate. I’m really happy with it.
As with any natural Ethiopia, you want to keep this coffee very lightly roasted. 20-30 seconds after the 1st cracks have stopped is our sweet spot. It's very forgiving to roast and tastes good even if you stall out the roast or don't let it out of the roaster at exactly the right time. Erring too light will make it a little savory with pomegranate seed and basil notes. Erring too dark brings out more chocolate notes.
If you take it too close to the 2nd cracks, it builds up a bitterness that is unpleasant, so this bean is for light roasts unless you are going to use it in your espresso machine, in which case you can roast it darker (beginning of 2nd cracks) to get a fruity espresso. It is also is an ideal choice for the "Mokka" half of your Mokka-Java blend.
Roast Batches
Dec 24 2025
Roast Details
| Roast Level | Time to FC | Drop Time | Charge Temp | Charge Weight | Final Weight | Diff | Indoor Temp | Indoor Humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light-ish | 13:09 | 13:23 | 423°F | 472g | 415.4g | 12% | 60.8°F | 49% |
Notes
- 944g left, so half is 472. Rather large batch, but it is what it is
- Opted to treat myself with some of this for Christmas week
- Charged higher & longer preheat to help with extra beans
- Overall went well, curious to have some tomorrow!
Roast Log
Sep 15 2025
Roast Details
| Roast Level | Time to FC | Drop Time | Charge Temp | Charge Weight | Final Weight | Diff | Indoor Temp | Indoor Humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light-ish | 14:38 | 14:47 | 400°F | 400g | 347.1g | 13.2% | 72.3°F | 63% |
Notes
- Nothing crazy here! Managed to get this really close to the curve / timing of the last roast somehow
Roast Log
Aug 14 2025
Roast Details
| Roast Level | Time to FC | Drop Time | Charge Temp | Charge Weight | Final Weight | Diff | Indoor Temp | Indoor Humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light-ish | 14:28 | 14:37 | 400°F | 400g | 348.2g | 12.95% | 77.9°F | 68% |
Notes
- Indoor roast
- Followed roast curve of last roast, but dropped at 8 sec past FC
- Recently - 7 on the espresso grinder is perfect with 15g
Roast log
Aug 06 2025
Roast Details
| Roast Level | Time to FC | Drop Time | Charge Temp | Charge Weight | Final Weight | Diff | Indoor Temp | Indoor Humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light-Medium | 15:16 | 15:42 | 400°F | 400g | 344.5g | 13.8% | 79.2°F | 67% |
Notes
- First try of this bean in the new roaster
- Outdoor roast
- Longer more drawn out roast, but drop ~30 sec after FC
- Very slow FC starting around ~ 370°
- Taste next morning - Definitely fruity and delicious, but still quite a bit of bitterness. Less bitter than previous two roasting methods, but still prominent. Solid roast either way, but room for improvement here
- May try dropping earlier next batch - especially because this batch was still almost 14% water loss
Roast log
May 17 2025
Roast Details
| Roast Level | Time to FC | Drop Time | Charge Temp | Charge Weight | Final Weight | Diff | Indoor Temp | Indoor Humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light-Medium | 2:10 | 2:20 | 350 | 70.08g | 62.07 | 12.9% | 67.1°F | 60% |
Notes
- Popcorn popper batch
Feb 09 2025
Roast Details
| Roast Level | Time to FC | Drop Time | Charge Temp | Charge Weight | Final Weight | Diff | Indoor Temp | Indoor Humidity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mediumish | 12 | 13:30 | 355 | 60g | 49.75 | 17% | 65.1 | 40 |
Notes
- Trying a pan roast using the stainless steel pan before I actually receive my real roaster
- Preheated for ~8 minutes on lower-left burner
- Kept pan lid on and swirled
- Accidentally lost a few beans when opening the lid once, so drop weight is off a bit from that
- Yellowing around 3:30ish
- Not a great rolling first crack, but heard a handful around 12 minutes & dropped 90 sec after
- So not 100% sure all beans cracked to be honest
- Set into a takeout container overnight
- Espresso in the morning at 10 grind setting. Too coarse. Coffee is definitely more medium-dark and a bit darker than I would prefer. A bit bitter, and heavy roast notes - though I could get a bit of strawberry notes too
- French press a bit later as well. Yeah this coffee was definitely roasted too dark for my preferences. Quite a bit of smokey, roast notes. I do wonder if keeping the pan lid on meant that I effectively smoked the beans as they cooked.