Sidamo is a region in Southern Ethiopia famous for its delicious coffees. The complexity found in a coffee from Sidamo is achieved through a combination of environmental factors: plenty of annual rainfall, a mild climate, rich volcanic soil and high altitudes. These allow coffee cherries to grow at a slow pace and to develop a range of flavours. They also create so-called microclimates, or typical weather circumstances that differ from town to town, making the Sidamo environment as complex as its coffees. This lot is a grade 2 heirloom that was produced by various smallholder farmers who typically own less than 5 ha of land. For economical and scale reasons, cherries are selectively handpicked by farmers and family and thereupon delivered to the Ayla Washing Station or a collection center.

At the station, cherries are sorted to remove the defect and underripe ones, after which they are depulped. Depending on the weather circumstances, coffee is then fermented for about 24 hours and afterwards graded in washing channels where the beans are separated based on their density. Once separated, coffee is soaked in clean spring water to remove all remaining mucilage and finally laid out to dry on raised beds to dry under shade for 10 to 14 days whilst frequently turned for even drying and covered under plastic during the hottest time of the day as well as the night for protection. This level of labour intensity for a grade 2 coffee leaves no doubt about the high cup quality of the coffee.

This coffee was sourced through our importing partner Sucafina.