Ethiopia
Chelbesa, Danche
Small holder Farmers
Danche Washing Station
Mixed heirloom / Ethiopian landrace
2100 masl
Hydro honey

Apricot, lemonade, strawberries and cream.

Birthplace of coffee: Ethiopia holds a legendary status in the coffee world- it’s not just the birthplace of Arabica coffee but also a place where coffee has been an integral part of daily life for centuries. Unlike most other coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia didn’t start growing coffee as a colonial cash crop. Instead, coffee has always been a local tradition, grown and loved by communities. For a lot of us coffee-obsessed folk, Ethiopian Coffee will always hold a special place. 

Varietal: Heirloom is an umbrella term used to identify the abundance of wild indigenous coffees that grow in Ethiopia. The country has seen a plethora of wonderful breeding, cross-breeding, and endlessly mutating coffee varietals that number in the thousands. As is often the case, once a desirable varietal is discovered (usually with particular flavour attributes in mind), it will be separated and cultivated on a small farm where it may later be identified as a new varietal. This is one of the things that makes sampling and selecting heirloom varietals so enticing--a surprise almost always awaits.

Measuring Brix: At the Danche Washing Station, coffee is tested to determine the sugar content of freshly harvested cherries before they are processed. Just like a refractometer we use to calculate the TDS of coffee, a liquid sample of cherry juice is loaded into the lens of the refractometer and a calculation to determine the amount of dissolved solids (sugar) is made by measuring how the light bends through the juice. The Brix refractometer provides a reading in degrees Brix (°Bx). 1°Bx equals 1g of sucrose (sugar) in a 100g solution, giving the percentage of sugar by mass. Only coffee with a reading of 20°Bx or higher reading is chosen for this coffee.

Hydro Honey: This rare processing method merges elements of the washed, natural and honey process to deliver a high quality cup. 

• After the juiciest and sweetest cherries are selected, they undergo mechanical sorting to eliminate any impurities. 

• Cherries are then floated, to remove any defective, underripe or overripe fruit which would float to the top, with the dense, high quality cherries sinking to the bottom. 

• After all of that sorting the cherries are left to dry for 48 hours on shaded drying beds. 

• Tankers are smoked with olive tree trunks before cherries and water are placed inside to soak and rehydrate the beans. 

• In the tanks the coffee cherry then ferments for 48 hours (24hours anaerobic, 24hours aerobic).

• Cherries are removed from the tanks and are left to dry for approx 25 days. 

Danche Washing Station: was established in 2019 and receives coffee from over 900 farmers. Danche Washing station is located in Chelbesa in the Gadeb district of the country's south.  This washing station gets coffee from over 900 smallholders who nurture land in the surrounding region. In a unique microclimate under the shade of the native forest, cherries are selectively picked with quality and sorting controls in place. We are very excited to be roasting this coffee from this highly sought after region of Ethiopia.