There a few different regions of coffee that we always try to have on our menu, and a Washed Yirgacheffe is one of them. Known for its clean, and delicately fruity flavour profile this region never disappoints. This coffee is cupping at a score of 86, and is going to be the coffee of choice to live in my hopper over the coming weeks.
Region: Konga
Altitude: 2000-2100masl
Coffee varieties: Wolisho, Kurume
Process: Washed
Drying: Dried 10-12 days on African beds.
Cupping notes: Tea, Peach, Orange
Cupping score: 86
Privately owned communal wetmill in Wote – Ethiopia: Konga, collecting cherries from various smallholders. Yirgacheffe is known for its clean, floral and acidity driven washed coffees and “high quality” sundried with genuine and unique fruit and berry flavors. The area where this coffee is grown is in our opinion having some of the most complex and intense coffee flavors in Yirgacheffe.
About 600 smallholder farmers delivering tiny amounts of cherries daily to the wet miller.
On average farmers are having a farm size of less than 1 hectares. Most coffees are organic by default. Organic compost is common, pruning less common. A farmer can typically have less than 1500 trees per hectare, and 1 tree is typically producing cherries equal to less than 100 – 200 grams of green coffee.
Whole ripe cherries are hand sorted for unripe Cherries. The parchment is then fermented under water for 24-48 hours, depending on the weather conditions. After which graded in the washing channels by water flow that separates the coffee by density. Its then soaked 12-24 hrs in fresh, clean water before it’s moved to the drying tables
The parchments is dried in the sun for about 10-15 days, depending on the weather conditions, on African drying beds. Coffees are covered in shade nets during midday and at night.