What's so special about coffee treated with Essex and Shifei honey? Introduction to the treatment process of Koke cleaning Station

Country of origin: Ethiopia

Region: Yega Xuefei

Production unit: donors to small farmers in Koke cleaning station

Variety: Jiulumi, Degas, Voriso

Treatment: honey treatment

Harvest: November to March

Cup test: Jasmine, peach, blueberry, coconut

Yirgacheffe literally translates as "the land of many springs", with ideal topography, altitude and water source, can produce and process high-quality coffee. Yirgacheffe is a town or county in the ethnic and people's area (SNNPR) of southern Ethiopia, including many towns, and is one of the most prosperous areas in the world. Yirgacheffe is part of the SNNPR Gedeo region, which borders Worda to the south of Kochere, Oromia to the west, Wenago to the north, Bule to the east and Gedeb to the southeast. Irgachev World (Yirgacheffe woreda) is 409km from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa (Addis Ababa), with a population of nearly 200000, less than 10 per cent of whom live in cities.

Coffee farmers in Yirgacheffe are usually multigenerational, small-scale landowners, sometimes with only a few acres of land. Most of Yirgacheffe's coffee is sold as cherries to centralized cleaning stations to help further separate flavors. Many farmers also grow the self-sufficient crop enventricosum, also known as fake bananas.

Yirgacheffe is considered by many to be the birthplace of coffee, and the coffee trees planted in this area are a natural mixture of heirloom varieties grown naturally in coffee gardens and coffee forests. Washed coffee was introduced to Ethiopia in the 1970s, and Yirgacheffe was home to the first wet processing plant.

The climate of Yirgacheffe is called warm zone climate. The rainfall in winter is much less than that in summer, the average annual rainfall is 1525mm, and the difference between the driest and driest months is 246mm. The average temperature in Yirgacheffe is 18.4C.

Coffee grown in many areas of the Gedeo region and in kebeles is often referred to as heirloom varieties, many of which have been spread and distributed to farmers over the past 40 years. Read more about common Ethiopian coffee varieties. Trees grow in fertile reddish-brown soil, including Bibira, Cordia Africana and Ensete ventricosum, a self-sufficient crop.

In southern Ethiopia, farmers selectively pick coffee and pick only ripe cherries by hand. Pickers rotate in the woods every eight to ten days, choosing only the cherries with the highest maturity.

Many pickers average about 100 to 200 pounds of coffee cherries a day and can produce 20 to 40 pounds of coffee beans. Carefully weigh each worker's daily workload and pay each picker according to the merits of his work. Then transport the day's harvest to the processing plant.

Washing station

The Koke cleaning station is named after Koke kebele (or town) and is located in the Yirgacheffe district of Gedeo district. Ally has established a long-term relationship with the family-owned Koke cleaning station, which was built in 2011 and has made many improvements since 2015, when staff at the cleaning station began to provide guidance to producers on steps to improve the quality of coffee. We have provided feedback to Koke and have been purchasing with them for more than five years, and we look forward to a fruitful partnership for many years.

Koke station is located on the hillside, and there is coffee above and below the station. For the past three years, Koke station managers have been isolating high-altitude cherries for Ally, and its quality is obvious. Ninety-six small-scale farmers have provided Coca-Cola with cherries, most of which are multi-generation family farmers.

Honey processing

Like the natural process, the Coca-Cola honey processing process begins by drying coffee in cherries for two days. The cherries were then starched and dried on 89 raised beds in Koke for 18-21 days. The extra time when the mucus comes into contact with the beans adds fruit flavor to the cup shape.

Coffee is ready for export at Tracon Trading's coffee cleaning and storage plant on 30000 square meters of land in Addis Ababa. The factory is equipped with modern Pinhalense coffee processors and Buhler Z + color sorters. The machine can handle six tons per hour. The beans are sorted by the last hand on the conveyor belt. The plant's six silos have a capacity of about 15000 metric tons. The warehouse is clean, well lit and well ventilated, making it an ideal choice to maintain the quality of coffee.