Banko Gotiti

In order to ensure quality, the team at the station pay close attention to cherry selection and sorting. Coffees are floated upon arrival to remove low density underripe or defective fruit, and then constantly sorted throughout process, in washing channels and on the beds. This leads to a very low level of defects and a high degree of uniformity in the final lot, vital in ensuring quality in combined smallholder lots. 

This lot in particular has rich and sweet peach notes, along with the typical floral and citrus aromas we have come to expect from Yirgacheffe coffees.

Throughout these endemic systems, a much higher level of biodiversity is maintained than in modern coffee production in much of the rest of the world. This is partly due to the forest system, and partly down to the genetic diversity of the coffee plants themselves. There are thousands of ‘heirloom’ varieties growing in Ethiopia; all descended from wild cross pollination between species derived from the original Arabica trees. This biodiversity leads to hardier coffee plants, which don’t need to be artificially fertilised. 

This means that 95% of coffee production in Ethiopia is organic, although most small farmers and mills can’t afford to pay for certification, so can’t label their coffee as such. The absence of monoculture in the Ethiopian coffee lands also means plants are much less susceptible to the decimating effects of diseases such as leaf rust that have ripped through other producing countries. Maintaining these systems is important, both within the context of the coffee industry, and for wider biodiversity and sustainability.