A NORTH AMERICAN FAVOURITE
In North America we drink A LOT of coffee, and one of our favourites is Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, it's incredibly popular! Yirgacheffe beans are harvested from October to December and due to the excellent growing conditions are often grown without agricultural chemicals. Ethiopia produces 846,575,000 pounds of coffee each year.
We use this bean in our Signature Blend - THE ONE. It's part of the perfect pairing that make this roast amazing, smooth and just right!
WHAT DOES WASHED MEAN?
The Tadesse Yirgacheffe Gr. 2 washed beans are a specialty coffee sourced from 1,100 small producers within the Oromia regional state. Here is a great explanation by our exporter, Intercontinental Coffee Trading, of the "washed" process,
Wet processing began in Ethiopia in the 1970s. Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia was the birth-place of the first wet processing mill. Instead of being picked and dried immediately, wet processing requires thorough washing. The coffee beans soak in giant water vats immediately after they’re picked. Once they are clean, the beans sit on rotating beds for 48 to 72 hours. This dries the entire bean evenly. Wet processing removes the traditional fermented Yirgacheffe flavors and creates a lighter bodied coffee bean with citrus and floral notes. Wet processing is a modern method that creates a more consistent flavor. This method produces Yirgacheffe coffee that can be marketed as a specialty product.
OUR BEAN
Back to our bean, small plots producing 300 to 700 kg of cherry each year are planted with traditional coffee varieties of Dega and Wulicho with native shade trees of Birbira, Grevillea and Kobo.
Many of these plots are intercropped with cereals, beans and banana plants. It is very traditional, centuries old, low input farming with insignificant to no agrochemical and fertilizer. Only the fully developed red cherry is collected and delivered to collection stations, where it is sun dried on African beds.
Yirgacheffe beans most often boast flavour notes of berries, nuts, chocolate, lemon and wine.