At very high altitudes in Southern Ethiopia is the famous coffee growing region of Yirgacheffe. Nestled among the semi-forest vegetation and the false banana trees is the small village of Chelbesa and its shade grown coffee trees.
This local coffee washing station strives to take in only perfectly ripe, red, coffee cherries from local, small holder farmers. The collected cherries are passed through a series of flotation tanks to separate all the unripe cherries which float.
For this lot the cherries were then pulped to remove the majority of the fruits flesh before being fermented in climate controlled fermentation tanks without water for 10-15 days. This varies from the more usual washed method where these tanks would be filled with water. This uses a lot less precious water and still results in a complex and clean cup.
This coffee zings with a lovely, sweet, floral, lemon flavour which combines beautifully with the earl grey tea flavours. There is also a lovely stone fruit note that reminded us of mango.
