Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

A delightfully clean and delicate coffee from where many consider the birthplace of coffee! Yirgacheffee coffees are renowned for their tea-like subtlety, and floral and citric flavors. This selection from our buddies at Red Fox is unique in that it is a washed process Yirgacheffe, as opposed to the traditional and more common natural/sun dried process of this region. The washed process results in a cleaner, more elegant profile, both less berry forward and exhibiting no rustic notes. This particular crop comes across citrus forward (lemon, guava), with accompanying notes of melon and tea with a creamy, sugary sweetness.

From Red Fox Coffee Merchants (importer)- “Yirgacheffe is a remote community in Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region. It’s home to one of the oldest coffee-growing traditions in the world. To get to Yirgacheffe we have to fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, then take a 30 minute local flight to the city of Hawassa in Sidamo. In Hawassa we drive 4 hours on a paved road until we reach the washing station in Yirgacheffe.

Yirgacheffe’s terrain is rugged and mountainous, so distance to the individual farms depends on where on the mountain they’re located. The closest farms to the city are 20 minutes away by motorcycle and the furthest ones are an hour away.

Most farms have access to dirt roads, so at harvest time producers transport bags of cherry by motorcycle, horse, or donkey to the nearest collection center. The majority of producers here belong to the Gedeo culture and speak the Gedeo language. The traditions of their native culture are still very present in producers’ daily life.”

Brewing recommendations: Filter (drip, pour over, chemex), espresso