Ive just finished a bag of this Dry Processed Ethiopian from Lineage Roasting As espresso I was getting tons of strawberry, which is a flavor you don't come across often. In my experience I have only ever gotten strawberry flavors from a natural Ethiopian. This is a very sweet coffee certainly not the sour/lemon flavor your looking to avoid.

Also look at El Salvador and Guatemala. As far as central americans go, these are my favorites for SO espressos. To start stay away from Kenyans and you will avoid the lemon type flavors. But I would urge you to give them a shot when you are ready. Most likely the ones you have tasted were very under extracted.

Thanks everyone! I'll look for a natural-process Ethiopian coffee to begin my single-origin journey. Can't wait!

I roasted some Ugandan from the Sipi falls region that made one exceptional darker roasted espresso.

Not sure you can find anyone roasting this but if you find someone, ask them to take it to the darker side of full city for a full bodied espresso roast.

A Kenya Nyeri was one of the easiest SOE's to work with I've had so far. I've had great shots from natural Ethiopians, but I'd recommend the Nyeri pretty highly to start out on. It was also possibly the easiest to roast well coffee I've had in.

I'm a huge fan of Ritual Roaster's "Sweet Tooth". It is their single origin espresso label, and the coffee rotates on about a monthly basis. Ritual does a great job on the roasting and selection of these coffees. The cool thing is since the coffee changes roughly monthly, you can subscribe to it and get a pretty wide range of interesting coffees to sample. They also include their recommendations on preparation on the label, so it is easier to dial in and get good results. They tend to pick SOE's and roast them to bring out a well balanced flavors that work well as shots or in milk drinks as well.

Try the current verve soe offering, really good and super easy to pull great shots

I had a chance to try Huckleberry's Phantom Limb blend the other day at their cafe; it's a blend of two Ethiopian coffees, one natural and one washed. To me, very strong blueberry flavors, and blueberry aroma. It sort of stuck with me for a few hours afterwards as well. Tasty, and quite unlike anything I've had before!

nuketopia wrote:I'm a huge fan of Ritual Roaster's "Sweet Tooth". It is their single origin espresso label, and the coffee rotates on about a monthly basis.

Just ordered a bag of this - I'm excited to try it! I like that they have recommendations for preparation on the web site...gives me a place to start.

Just started pulling some shots of Blueprint Coffee's Ethiopia Guji Hambela, and I think it might be right up your alley. It's sweet with balanced acidity, not overly bright - with grape flavors from purple grape jam to white grape juice and a hint of cocoa in the finish.

I can speak for the Hambela too. I live in St. Louis not too far from Blueprint and the Hambela is easily one of my favorite coffees ever, if not my single favorite. The batch this year which I did mostly espresso with and last year which I only did as brew. Spectacular as either.

Thanks guys - I'll put that one on my list too!