Ethiopian coffee
Microlot - Organic
Producer: Khalid Shifa
Finca Echemo 2100 masl
Region: Goma, Jimma
Varietal: Heirloom
Process: Washing
ACS Score: 87
A lovely cup with fruity notes: peach, lime, orange and honey
When Khalid tells us about his career, we understand the attachment of this thirty-something farmer to the farm and to the coffee trees that saw him grow. Khalid is a native of the country. He got these plantations from his father, who in turn got them from his father. The coffee here is a patrimony that is taken care of. His family has long settled in these lands. His grandfather had been looking for wild coffee plants in the Choché forest, a few kilometers away, to develop his first plantations. Since then, the growing demand for Jimma's coffee has contributed to the consolidation of the family plantations and Khalid is happy to continue these traditions. He remembers, as a boy, winding through these coffee trees and following his mother as she picked the cherries. He knows this land down to the smallest detail and, through this transmission, he says that he considers these coffee trees as his “own children”. In view of the attention you pay to your farm and the exceptional environment of the site, in view of the efforts you make to constantly improve the quality of your production, we understand the deep bond that binds you to this space. He hopes that his 3 children, currently settled and educated in the nearby small town of Agaro, can also benefit from growing coffee later on.
The family farm has grown and now extends over 35 hectares, in the Jimma appellation, at an altitude of 2100 m. It takes place within a rich environment, the biodiversity of which Khalid and his brother seek to maintain. They established a nursery for new coffee plants. They have 31 African beds for coffee drying, of which 6 are reserved exclusively for the Honey process. Khalid developed this process following the recommendations of the Belco teams in Ethiopia.
Heirloom as such is not a variety, due to the difficulty of classification, coffees from native plants of the region are called heirloom, differentiating them from those created in the laboratory (hybrids). It is important to mention that the history of coffee begins in this African country.
Coffee processed with the "Washing" technique, which implies that drying is carried out after removing the skin and pulp from the fruit in a process called pulping, leaving only the coffee seeds wrapped in a dense layer like honey called mucilage that for to be able to remove it is washed in large tanks of water (hence its name washed). With the seeds without remains, it is dried in the sun on sunroofs or drying patios.
The washing process has evolved to be more environmentally friendly, which has led to the fact that today less water is used per kilo of washed coffee and that the water that remains after the process is treated for reuse.
