Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Washed

Small-batch roasted by Chris in Edmonton.

Light Roast
Single Origin

In the cup: Stone fruit and lemon at the front, jasmine running through the middle, dark chocolate at the finish. Clean and floral.

Where coffee began

This lot comes from the Gedeb district of the Gedeo Zone, in Ethiopia's Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region. Deep in Yirgacheffe country, one of the most celebrated growing regions on earth. Ethiopia is the birthplace of arabica, and few places wear that history as plainly as this one.

The coffee grows on vertisol soil at 1,900 to 2,300 metres, shaded and intercropped with banana and other nitrogen fixing crops. The kind of small, mixed plots that have defined Ethiopian farming for generations.

The Hafursa Cooperative

This coffee comes from family owned farms organized under the Hafursa Cooperative, established in 1975. Today the co-op has roughly 893 members, most farming plots under 1.5 hectares.

In 2002, Hafursa joined the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), an umbrella group formed that year to support a sustainable coffee supply across the Gedeo region. Twenty-six other cooperatives belong to the union, representing more than 35,000 farmers.

The lot is certified Fair Trade and Organic. A reflection of how the cooperative farms, not just how it's marketed.

The detail

Grower: Hafursa Cooperative
Region: Gedeb district, Gedeo Zone, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
Altitude: 1,900 to 2,300 metres
Variety: Indigenous heirloom cultivars
Soil: Vertisol
Process: Fully washed, dried on raised beds
Harvest: October to December
Certification: Fair Trade (FLO/USA), Organic
Roast: Light
Grind: Whole bean or ground

Brew guide

Pour-over: the best showcase for the jasmine and stone fruit.
Aeropress: brings out the citric brightness with a cleaner body.
French press: rounds the cup and pushes the chocolate finish forward.

Worth getting up for

Roasted in small batches in Edmonton.

Behind this cup are 893 families farming less than two hectares each, shading their trees with banana plants the way their parents did. We roast it the way we'd want it waiting at the trailhead. Bright, honest, worth getting up for.

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