$11.75 per lb

Sumo Orange, Rose, Crisp, Tropical

Location: Kochere

Varietal: Karume, Heirloom

Process: Washed

Elevation: 1950-2150 masl

Here we have your classic washed Ethiopian holding crazy floral on the nose and in the cup, with tea like sweetness, thing Bergamot, and nice subtle acidity rounded out with a clean finish to provide your tastebuds with an exceptional experience your drunk uncle would even approve of.

Located in prime coffee land (and less than 5 km from the town of Yirgacheffe), the washing station is in reach of several coffee-growing communities – Aricha, Reko, Gersi, Naga Singage, and Idido. Everything is perfect for coffee here – the farmer community is experienced, the soil is fertile, the mountains and forests provide the ideal microclimate – and yet the Aricha washing station was left to decay, never reaching even a fraction of its potential.

Enter Faysel Abdosh and Testi Coffee. Faysel comes from a family of coffee growers, and he knows what good coffee is. In fact, his first endeavor as a young man was finding good coffee and bringing it to coffee buyers in his native Harar region.

Recognizing the potential of the coffee-growing communities in the area and seeing the need for a high-quality washing station there, he did not hesitate when he heard the Aricha site was available for sale. Testi Coffee took over the site around 2018 and immediately got to work reviving the washing station – a formidable task.

The first year was tough, as much needed to be done, but all the arduous work has paid off. Aricha now ranks as one of Testi’s smoothest operating washing stations. The farming communities around the station no longer must travel far to sell their cherries and are quite happy to work with the Aricha washing station. While the washing station does not process each farmer’s lot separately, it does process each farming community’s lot separately. As a result, traceability extends a step further than the Aricha washing station and into the communities surrounding it.