Ethiopia - Buliye, Hambela

Roast: Light-Medium
Variety: Heirloom Types
Process: Natural
Altitude: 2195 m.a.s.l
Producer: Small Farm-holders
Notes: Plum, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Apricot

The station is Buno Buliye, and sits at a very high-altitude of 2195 meters above sea level. They process around 1.5 containers of dry process coffee, which believe it or not, is on the small side. It also means these 120 bags are roughly 1/3 of their output last year. These lots are made up of coffee from several hundred different farmers, most with only a couple hundred coffee trees or less. You tend to see coffee intercropped with other fruits and vegetables, "false banana" being one the more common food staples to see planted in the Hambela region. Dry processing is the oldest coffee processing method still used and involves drying the coffee bean and cherry whole. From pictures you see of this process, you might think you can just dump the cherries to the beds and wait. This is not the case, and the best lots take a lot of preparation! The coffee has to be spread out to a layer depth of only a few centimeters, no more, in order to allow air flow. The coffee is turned hourly, or even more frequently, in order to facilitate even drying and keep the coffee from molding. It's not difficult but requires constant attention. Workers continually pull-out lower quality coffee in the form of physical defects and coffee that was not harvested at peak ripeness in order to cultivate Grade 1 quality.