Processed at the Danche mill, just outside the town of Chelbesa in Gedeb.

Yirgacheffe

Gedeb

The Danche mill is locate just outside the town of Chelbesa in the Gedeb province of Ethiopia. The mill received cherry from about 400 farmers this year, a rather small number in Ethiopia, where many farmers have only a few coffee trees on very small farms, spread among other food and cash crops. The conditions here in coffee’s genetic home are well-suited to growing high quality lots, with long dry spells during harvest, and high levels of sun intensity year round. This, along with fertile soils and bio-diverse eco-systems leads to some of the finest quality raw material we see in coffee, and requires minimal influence from processing to produce excellent cups. This lot from Danche is no different, delivering on the typical Ethiopian white florals, and delicate citrus tea in the cup.

The crisp florals and delicate citrus tea notes here are typical of washed Ethiopian lots.

Heirloom

Throughout all of these systems, a much higher level of biodiversity is maintained than in modern coffee production in most of the rest of the world. This is partly due to the forest system, and partly down to the genetic diversity of the coffee plants themselves. There are thousands of so far uncategorised ‘heirloom’ varieties growing in Ethiopia; all descended from wild cross pollination between species derived from the original Arabica trees. This biodiversity leads to hardier coffee plants, which don’t need to be artificially fertilised. This means that 95% of coffee production in Ethiopia is organic, although most small farmers and mills can’t afford to pay for certification, so can’t label their coffee as such. The absence of monoculture in the Ethiopian coffee lands also means plants are much less susceptible to the decimating effects of diseases such as leaf rust that have ripped through other producing countries.