CHELBESA

NOTES OF STONE FRUIT, WHITE TEA, JASMINE

WASHING STATION: Chelbesa
REGION: Yirgacheffe, Gedeo Zone
HARVEST: December – January
VARIETY: Kurume, Dega, Wolisho
ALTITUDE: 2,100+ MASL
PROCESS: Washed

Chelbesa is a washing station in southern Yirgacheffe, taking in cherry from smallholder farms across Danche village and the hills around it. The farms sit above 2,100 metres.

At that altitude temperatures stay low and the cherry ripens slowly, giving the fruit more time to build sugar and acidity before it's picked.

Dega, one of the three varieties in this lot, shares its name with the Amharic word for cool highland country. It's grown mixed in with the other two, Kurume and Wolisho, rather than in rows of its own.

All three are landraces, coffee that developed in the forests of Gedeo and the surrounding highlands, selected and replanted by farmers long before they were ever formally catalogued. Kurume is named after a local tree with small fruit, much like its own cherries. Wolisho goes the other way, with big cherries and long leaves.

Most farms here are under two hectares, with coffee grown in semi-forest shade, in among food crops and false banana. The Gedeo people's way of farming this landscape earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.

At Chelbesa, the cherry is sorted, floated, pulped, then fermented in tanks for two to three days before washing. It dries on shaded raised beds for eight to twelve days, turned regularly the whole way through.

We're tasting jasmine and white tea, a light, floral cup that's classic Yirgacheffe. Stone fruit fills in the sweetness.

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