Ethiopia Kochere - Chelelektu

Peach, sweet, floral notes, a bit of spice, sweet finish
TOP LOT
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Bag Weight 60 KG BAG
Harvest Season 2020/21
Status Spot
Lot Number P607878-2
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About This Coffee

This is a grade 1, fully washed lot from Chelelektu wetmill in Kochere disctrict, Gedeo zone. The mill, managed by Legese Kebede, processes cherries from around 650 local smallholder farmers. Farmers typically cultivate less than 2 hectares of land and farms range between 1,900 and 2,100masl, some of the highest altitude coffee terroir in the world. 

Ripe cherries are delivered to the wetmill for careful sorting and pulping, before fermentation for 36-48 hours, depending on the climactic conditions. After this point the parchment coffee is thoroughly washed and graded by bean density before being dried in the sun on raised African beds for 12 - 15 days (until the ideal moisture level has been reached). In the daytime the parchment needs to be raked and turned periodically to ensure a consistent drying process. The coffee is also covered between 12pm and 3pm to protect it from the hot sun, and at night time to protect it from rainall and moisture. Once the coffee has dried to the right level it is transported to Addis Ababa for dry-milling, grading, sorting and handpicking, before being bagged in GrainPro for export.

Country of Origin Ethiopia
Harvest Season 2020/21
Coffee Grade ETH CA WA YIRG G1
Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
Plant Species Arabica
Processing Washed
Cup Score 86
Region Kochere, SNNP

History of Coffee in Ethiopia

Coffee is ancient in Ethiopia, but coffee farming is not. By the end of the 9th Century coffee was actively being cultivated in Ethiopia as food, but probably not as a beverage. It was the Arab world that developed brewing. Even as coffee became an export for Ethiopia in the late 1800’s, Ethiopian coffee was the result of gathering rather than agricultural practices. A hundred years ago, plantations, mostly in Harar, were still the exception, while “Kaffa” coffee from the southwest was still harvested wild. In 1935, William Ukers wrote: “Wild coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. The trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, at a minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is said that in south-western Abyssinia there are immense forests of it that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts.” 

Growing Coffee in Ethiopia

As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is home to more species of coffee plants than any place on earth, much of it still growing wild, and much of it still undiscovered. All Ethiopian coffee is Arabica and at least 150 varieties are commercially cultivated. Traditionally, these have simply been labelled as “heirloom varietals”; however, this is changing as the Jimma Agricultural Research Center works to identify species.  Although there are a few estates in Ethiopia, 95% of coffee is grown by small land holders in a wide variety of environments, including “coffee forests” where coffee grows wild and is harvested by the local people. All specialty grade Ethiopian Coffee is grown above 4,000 feet and most above 6,000. In the highlands of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, coffee can grow above 7,000 feet. 

  • Cup Score 86
  • Region Kochere, SNNP
  • Producer Type Small Holder Farmers
  • Wet Mill Chelelektu
  • Processing Washed
  • Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
  • Plant Species Arabica
  • On Sale No
  • Top Lot Yes
  • Status Spot
  • Coffee Grade ETH CA WA YIRG G1
  • CTRM Contract Number P607878-2
  • Country of Origin Ethiopia
  • Warehouse The Annex

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