About the coffee
- Cupping notes: Orange, floral and lemon notes; bright, tangy acidity, buttery mouthfeel.
- Cultivation: Mountain grown in the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia, at extremely high elevation
- Altitude: 5,000-6,500 feet
- Varietals: Local, indigenous Ethiopian heirloom varietals
- Preparation: Washed and sun-dried on raised beds
About the people who grow it
The Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU) represents more than 300,000 families and indirectly supports the livelihoods and daily survival of more than 15 million people in Ethiopia, through high-quality coffee production. Located in Gedeo, Southern Ethiopia, YCFCU was founded in 2002 and represents 23 member cooperatives, including the Tumticha Cooperative.
The YCFCU pays its farmers premiums based on the quality of the final coffee, and it requires that farmers pick only fully-ripe cherry. At a YCFCU quality-control center, cherries are sorted to remove any that are not up to standard and then are pulped, fermented, washed and dried to 12% moisture. YCFCU has its own processing facility in Addis Ababa, where the dried coffee parchment is bagged and transported to hulling machines and warehouses.
The YCFCU is involved in various projects, such as a School Desks for Children program, in which it purchased 500 school desks for children in the community. They also worked with a cooperative union in the area to ensure that electricity is installed in the Yirgacheffe area. Additionally, the cooperative realized a vital need in the transport sector. While initially it was impossible for local residents to access the markets, since an old bridge was dangerously rotting, the farmers union recently build a new bridge, which has increased market access and development dramatically.
Wetye Jilo (a farmer pictured below left) says, “I used to sell my coffee to a private buyer who always gave me a small price of 35 birr per 100 kilos of coffee. Thanks to the union, I now get 3 times more from the same amount of coffee. I have expanded dramatically and now grow my coffee on a whole hectare of land. My seven children are now counted among the educated, not to mention the extra income I get from the sheep and chicken I now raise, all because of the YCFCU.”
The YCFCU pays its farmers premiums based on the quality of the final coffee, and it requires that farmers pick only fully-ripe cherry. At a YCFCU quality-control center, cherries are sorted to remove any that are not up to standard and then are pulped, fermented, washed and dried to 12% moisture. YCFCU has its own processing facility in Addis Ababa, where the dried coffee parchment is bagged and transported to hulling machines and warehouses.
The YCFCU is involved in various projects, such as a School Desks for Children program, in which it purchased 500 school desks for children in the community. They also worked with a cooperative union in the area to ensure that electricity is installed in the Yirgacheffe area. Additionally, the cooperative realized a vital need in the transport sector. While initially it was impossible for local residents to access the markets, since an old bridge was dangerously rotting, the farmers union recently build a new bridge, which has increased market access and development dramatically.
Wetye Jilo (a farmer pictured below left) says, “I used to sell my coffee to a private buyer who always gave me a small price of 35 birr per 100 kilos of coffee. Thanks to the union, I now get 3 times more from the same amount of coffee. I have expanded dramatically and now grow my coffee on a whole hectare of land. My seven children are now counted among the educated, not to mention the extra income I get from the sheep and chicken I now raise, all because of the YCFCU.”
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