Ethiopia Chelbessa

Ethiopia  – Chelbessa
Among coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia holds near-legendary status not only because it’s the “birthplace” of Arabica
coffee, but also because it is simply unlike every other place in the coffee world. Unlike the vast majority of coffee-growing
countries, the plant was not introduced as a cash crop through colonization. Instead, growing, processing, and drinking coffee
is part of the everyday way of life, and has been for centuries since the trees were discovered growing wild in forests and
eventually cultivated for household use and commercial sale.The majority of Ethiopia’s farmers are smallholders and
sustenance farmers, with less than 1 hectare of land apiece. In many cases, it is almost more accurate to describe these farms
as “coffee gardens” as the trees do sometimes grow in more of a garden or forest environment than what we imagine fields of
farmland to look like. There are some large privately owned estates, as well as co-operative societies comprising a mix of
small and more mid-size farms, but the average producer here grows relatively very little for commercial sale.

This coffee comes from the Chelbessa Washing Station in Yirgacheffe. Chelbessa is one of the largest “Kebeles” or towns in Gedeb. This washing station receives coffee from nearly 500 farmers in the region. Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult. We do, however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing.

Natural coffees are typically delivered the day they are harvested, and are first sorted for ripeness and quality before being
rinsed clean of dirt. Then they are spread on raised drying beds or tables, where they will be rotated constantly throughout the
course of drying. Drying can take an average of 8–25 days, depending on the weather.

lthough this offering is not traceable to a single variety, it is comprised of native heirloom varieties cultivated in Ethiopia.

Yirgacheffe has become famous for coffees that tastes like blueberries. This region is plentiful. The thick vegetation is a
product of the warm tropical climate with moderate wet and dry seasons. Most coffee is shade-grown by small producers
using organic practices. Coffees are cultivated from 1600 to 2400 masl in these highlands. The multitude of microregions
creates complex profiles depending on the washing station a particular coffee is from.