Origin: Idido, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

Producer: Tefanesh Zeleke

Varietals: Dega, JARC 74110, JARC 74112

Altitude: 2200 masl

Processing: natural

Sourced through Sucafina Specialty Coffee

Tefanesh grew up in a farming family in Idido. With altitudes of 2150 to 2200m, her farm is one of the highest coffee farms in the region. This creates perfect conditions for the coffee beans to be very dense and sweet.

Tefanesh and her husband selectively pick ripe cherries and process them on the farm which spans across 6 hectares. They hand sort the cherries again before laying it to dry on raised beds and rake frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 14 days for the cherries to dry.

Most farmers in the region farm on fewer than 5 hectares, many counting their farms in terms of trees rather than area. Cultivation methods are traditional for the most part, with coffee being grown as part of an integrated "coffee garden", intercropped with other food crops.

Yirgacheffe is a district in Southern Ethiopia's Sidamo region and considered as one of the "birth regions" of coffee. The majority of coffees grown in Yirgacheffe are local landrace varieties (also called "heirloom"). Other varieties grown in the region were developed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) which is an important center for Ethiopia and it has done a great deal of work on developing disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties that still demonstrate the desired qualities in the cup profile.