CULTIVATION

Our selected Yirgacheffe farmers prefer traditional farming methods to modern machinery. Their deep knowledge about local climate and years of experience help in performing maximum tasks manually. The small family farming over less than 3 hectares allows equal attention to each plant.

The most favourable factor of Ethiopian coffee is the farmers’ intercropping techniques. They grow personal food with coffee, like bananas, avocados, and corn, which provide shade for coffee. It results in slow ripening of cherries with better taste development.

The favourable climate is not enough for Ethiopian farmers to achieve satisfactory growth of coffee. Therefore, Aricha Washing Station provides training to farmers for the best use of all natural advantages. These training sessions cover harvesting and the safe transportation of cherries.

Harvest and Post-Harvest

The trained workers manually pick only well-ripened cherries. It results in better sweetness, consistent body, and rich flavour in the final product. After transferring these hand-picked cherries, the staff again rechecks the stock to remove green or damaged pieces.

Next, the sorted cherries pass through the pulping step and at last, the beans are transferred into fermentation tanks. Workers wash parchment coffee to remove the minor remaining sticky layer, resulting in brighter acidity and consistent quality.

The Ethiopian washing station has 280 drying beds where workers frequently rake parchment. Each drying bed has a traceable code to maintain quality during the drying duration.

ETHIOPIA GRADE 1

Our Ethiopian coffee receives grading based on the beans’ visual appearance and cup quality. Our Grade 1 speciality coffee has no quakers, taints, or other cup faults.