Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

The Farmers:

Aricha is the name of the washing station or mill the farmers bring their harvest to be processed and prepared for export. The coffee is washed, the fruit removed, dried and raised beds of bamboo, then processed for shipment to the coffee consuming world. There are more or less 700 smallholder farmers (less than 200 trees) that utilize this mill most of whom are the Gadeo people that occupy the area around the small town of Yirgacheffe which is about 8 miles away from the city.

The Coffee:

The Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia is one of the most famous coffee growing regions in the world, warm enough to grow at high elevations with moderate wet and dry seasons provide the prefect climate. The varieties of coffee here are ancient heirloom and are often unique to each village. Much of the individual beauty of the village coffees have been lost to the world due to government and restrictive export policies but this years offering from the Aricha Washing Station reminds us the village coffees still exist. So delicate and sweet.