Perhaps I’ve got sandpaper for a palate but it wasn’t till my New-Yorker/Ethiopian girlfriend introduced me to her native land’s Sidamo that I fully appreciated the variety of our planet’s coffee. Until then I’d always felt a little like the famous emperor being shown new robes as I tasted different coffees and strained to taste their subtle differences.

But as you explain here Daniel, Ethiopian Sidamo does have a truly striking flavour, often resembling blueberry which shouts it out from the crowd. To me it’s almost as if God made it for those of us with a less sophisticated palate to say: ‘Here, see, coffee does have variety of flavour. Here’s the proof! Now, go forth and train your pallet to hear all the other languages which whisper their story in softer tones’.

Personally I like Waitrose own-brand pre-ground Ethiopian made strong in a cafetiere/french press with a dash of milk (‘how my people make it’ said my now ex-girlfriend in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way). Unfortunately, their supply does seem to have changed in the last year and to me appears slightly less fruity. A recent edition of the Monmouth Coffee notes laments the difficulty in tracing back Ethiopian Sidamo to single estates due to the trading patterns of the country. They promise that this is something they’re now working to rectify in order to improve the standardisation of supply.