Ethiopia
Yirgacheffe
Smallholder Producers
Smallholder Farms
Landrace and Locally Selected Varieties
Natural
November–December
Strawberry, Brown Sugar, Mandarin, Vanilla
2200 meters
N/A
60 kg w/ GrainPro
APAC - Sydney - RPM
APAC - Melbourne - RPM
This coffee was produced by smallholder producers living in mountains surrounding the Konga washing station in the Konga kebele of the Yirgacheffe woreda in Ethiopia’s Gedeo zone. Ripe cherries were delivered by 450 producers to the washing station, which is operated by Teshome Gemechu, a partner of SNAP Specialty Coffee.
Local farmers grow landrace and locally selected varieties. Cherries are manually harvested before being delivered to the washing station. This lot underwent traditional Natural processing and was dried on raised beds. Cherries are turned frequently during drying, and are covered during the hottest hours of the day and at night to control the rate of drying.
This coffee was sourced from SNAP Specialty Coffee. SNAP was established in 2008 by Negusse Debela in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The company operates three washing stations in the Gedeo zone, and are partnered with additional washing stations in Guji and West Arsi. We began our partnership with SNAP in 2022.
As the coffee industry continues to grow in Ethiopia, the country’s historic growing areas don’t always match up with the current-day maps defining Ethiopia’s geography. Our goal is to provide the clearest and most accurate information about the coffees that we offer, and we’re proud to provide the most specific location information we have for these coffees. Learn more about Ethiopia’s coffee growing regions on our blog.
Region: SNNPR
Zone: Gedeo
Woreda: Yirgacheffe
Kebele: Konga
ECX Growing Area: Yirgacheffe
Literally translated as “Land of Many Springs,” Yirgacheffe has the ideal topography, elevation, and water sources to produce and process exceptional coffees. Yirgacheffe is one of the woredas, a district like a municipality or county that includes many towns, of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia. Yirgacheffe is part of the Gedeo Zone of SNNPR and the Yirgacheffe woreda is bordered to the south by Kochere, to the west by Oromia Zone, to the north by Wenago, to the east by Bule, and to the southeast by Gedeb. The Yirgacheffe woreda is 409km from Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa and has a population of almost 200,000 people, less than 10% of whom live in cities.
Coffee farmers in Yirgacheffe are typically multi-generational, small-scale landholders, sometimes with only a few acres of land. Most coffees in Yirgacheffe are sold as cherry to centralized washing stations that help further separate flavor profiles. Many farmers also grow the subsistence crop enset ventricosum, also known as false banana.
Yirgacheffe is considered by many to be the birthplace of coffee and the coffee trees grown in the region are a naturally occurring mix of heirloom varietals cultivated among other species in coffee gardens and coffee forests. Washed Coffee was introduced to Ethiopia in the 1970’s, and Yirgacheffe was the location of the first wet processing mill.
The climate in Yirgacheffe is warm and temperate. In the winter, there is much less rainfall than the summer, with an annual average of 1525mm and a difference of 246mm of precipitation between the wettest and driest months. The average temperature across Yirgacheffe is 18.4 degrees Celsius.
