PRODUCER
Several Smallholder Farmers
REGION
Guji, Ethiopia
ELEVATION
1970-2241m
VARIETAL
Heirloom Varieties
HARVEST
November - January
PROCESS
Natural: dried on raised beds with continuous rotation 8-25 days
SOURCING PARTNERS
Café Imports, Hambela Wamena Washing Station
ORIGIN SUSTAINABILITY BONUS
(Relative to Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide low point)
132%
ROAST LOSS
~12% at 9.5min
VISUAL
Medium/Light Roast
ACIDITY
Winey
BODY
2% milk

BAG DESIGN ARTIST
Cassy Vollmar
ORIGINAL WORK
Watercolor

ADDITIONAL INFO
The Hambela Wamena Washing Station was founded in 2018 by the founder of Tega & Tula farms. Its location at the top of the highest mountain peak of Guji. Hambela makes it a central point to serve surrounding towns and it currently serves around 3,900 producers. There are a number of social programs supported by this washing station including the building of roads, schools, technical equipment, support for producers, as well as medical health expenses and support for women's health care.

Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.

The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult.

Although this coffee is not officially certified organic, typically farmers in this region don't have access to and therefore do not utilize fertilizers or pesticides in the production of coffee.