Ethiopia Yirgacheffe 1 Supernatural Banko Chelchele

High in elevation for even Ethiopia’s standards, this is a natural process, from a single independent processing site in the famous Gedeb district of Yirgacheffe managed by Azeb Tadesse. The coffee is milled to the highest standard by a modern and independently-operated export company. 

Brief History & Flavor Profile 

The district of Gedeb takes up the south-eastern corner of Ethiopia’s Gedeo Zone—a narrow section of plateau dense with savvy farmers whose coffee is known as “Yirgacheffe”, after the zone’s most famous district. Gedeb, however, is a terroir, history, and community all its own that merits unique designation in our eyes. Coffees from this community, much closer to Guji Zone than the rest of Yirgacheffe, are often the most explosive cup profiles we see from anywhere in Ethiopia. Naturals tend to have perfume-like volatiles, and fully washed lots are often sparklingly clean and fruit candy-like in structure. 

The municipality of Gedeb itself is a is a bustling outpost that links commerce between the Guji and Gedeo Zones, with an expansive network of processing stations who buy cherry from across zone borders. These processors (and we would agree) would argue their coffee profiles are not exactly Yirgacheffe, but something of their own. The communities surrounding Gedeb reach some of the highest growing elevations for coffee in the world and are a truly enchanting part of the long drive into Guji. Banko Chelchele is one of the communities East of Gedeb and includes cooperative members that are cooperative-affiliated, as well independent washing stations of various types, many of which, like this one, are simply named “Chelchele” after the town itself.  

Processing Detail & Quality Control 

Azeb Tadesse’s processing site is 2 hectares in size and employs up to 200 individuals to assist processing operations during harvest. Cherry is delivered throughout the day during harvest, where it is inspected and sorted for acceptability based on ripeness and uniformity. Once received, cherries are moved directly to the drying tables where they spread in a single layer to dry in the sun. The full drying process normally takes 3-6 weeks depending on the local climate at the time, and the final resting moisture content of the fruit is 11.5%. Once cherries have been thoroughly dried and rested, the dried fruit is hulled from the coffee seed locally, and then transferred to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. In Addis the coffee is dry-milled by Tadesse Desta Import & Export, using modern color sorting equipment and a fleet of trained workers who repeatedly hand-sort the coffee for export.  

Azeb is currently pursuing organic and Rainforest Alliance certifications for future harvests. That, and expanding their processing repertoire as well to include anaerobically-fermented coffees as well as experimental extra “winey” profiles that they are interested in exploring.