Ethiopia Yirgacheffe BIRHANU 250g

Birhanu’s farm is best described as a Garden coffee production or a mixed farming system. Throughout his farm the coffee trees grow under a light shade from perennial shade trees and Enset (false banana), with root crops amongst the plantation. Organic compost is the only source of nutrient that is used to fertilize both coffee trees and the other food crops on his farm. In every corner of the farms there are wild plants and heirloom flowers that maintain the original bio-diversity of the old forest. Pruning and weed control is carried out yearly in the off-season to maintain a more consistent yield each year.

The coffee is hand-picked and brought straight to the drying beds in the afternoon. Both sinking the cherry into water and manual hand sorting is used to sort out under ripe, overripe and insect damaged cherries, leaving only well-ripen red cherries on the raised drying beds. The coffee is covered overnight and in case of rain and to avoid re-humidification. The coffee is also covered during the midday when the weather is too hot, to ensure a smooth consistent drying of the cherry.

A total of 11 kilos of red cherry per square meter is distributed onto the drying beds. To maintain uniform drying among beans, the coffee cherry is turned around on the bed manually six times per day. From the 15th day of drying, the trend of the moisture loss is monitored daily to ensure that the coffee parchment is taken off the drying beds when the moisture level is perfect, between 9.5% and 10.5%.