Ethiopia Danche #3

We try not to keep coffee on the shelves for long, so if we don't have a particular coffee in stock, we have to replenish the order after the roasting day. We roast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, pack the coffee and send it out on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Traditionally, coffees from this area were marketed as coming from Yirgacheffe. In recent years, however, a distinction has begun to be made between this particular part of the region to emphasise the uniqueness of the flavour profiles found here.

The coffee comes from the well-known coffee village of Chelbesa, from the Danche processing station - located at an altitude of between 2,000 and 2,300 m. Thanks to the fertile soils and suitable cultivation methods, the local farmers - around 400 farms - achieve very good yields. Most of them run small farms of one or two hectares. Their fruit arrives precisely at Danche to be processed according to precise procedures.

The station specialises in wet processing, and the whole process begins with hand-picking and sorting the cherries. The fruit then goes into the traditional Agaarde depulper, which removes the skin and pulp. Even at this stage, the first sorting takes place - the machine divides the grains into two quality classes based on their density.

After depulping, the coffee goes to fermentation - which lasts an average of 72 hours, although depending on conditions it can extend up to four days. Further sorting is then carried out in water channels, where the lighter beans come to the surface and are separated. Only the densest ones, and therefore of the highest quality, reach the next stage.

The grains - already as parchment - are soaked in clean water and then dried on raised beds for 8 to 20 days. The thickness of the layer and the drying rate depend on the weather conditions and the stage of the process - all to ensure that each batch is dried as evenly and stably as possible.