Ethiopia - Guji Shakiso Mormora

Ethiopia and its coffee farming families stand to benefit more abundantly from the country's inherent advantages as the primordial origin of coffee — invariably blessed terroir; instinctual, indigenous know-how; and unmatched genetic diversity — once they overcome the various challenges faced by the coffee sector in terms of productivity and premium market access.

Originland Coffee was founded in 2022 by established entrepreneur Mikiyas Alemu and seasoned specialty coffee professional Abenezer Asfaw to empower smallholder farmers and preserve nature, both of which necessarily comprise the backbone of a coffee business that looks to thrive for the long term.

To do this, they constructed washing stations, i.e. post-harvest processing facilities, in different coffee-growing zones — three of which are regions recognized at the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence, consecutively in 2021 and 2022 — that would allow the farming communities in the vicinity improve the quality of their coffees to specialty coffee standards.

Apart from granting these communities a venue for the implementation of the most relevant post-harvest processing methods, Originland also engages in active knowledge-sharing about simultaneously sustainable and productive cultivation and farm maintenance practices and augments their reach across more lucrative and discerning consuming communities who are able to recognize, appreciate, and gladly provide the appropriate compensation for the distinctive flavor profiles that are a mark of good quality.

Mormora Village is a coffee farming community in the Shakiso district, which lies south to Uraga and Hambela, both well-known districts in the specialty coffee world. At elevations between 1,800 and 2,300 masl, the village rests on fertile soils and receives an ideal amount of rainfall, which are among the beneficial factors contributing to the sought-after attributes of their coffee.

Wolisho, like Dega and Kurume, are varieties native to the Gedeo zone that reportedly originated from Yirgacheffe and through cross-country trading reached Guji. Wolisho trees are typically characterized as having larger leaves and cherries than Kurume, while Dega’s is in between. Following traditional practices, Shakiso smallholder farmers cultivate several varieties in small plots of land without artificial inputs, making the coffees organic by default

At harvest season, the head of household designates the trees which are ripe for picking — the ones with deep red cherries — and it is conventionally women, recognized to have the acumen for it, who lead in this task. Throughout, they take care not to strip the trees of leaves or harm any of the branches.

The cherries are then brought to the wet mill, like that of Fitsum Ande, who has developed a proficiency in natural post-harvest processing since 2017. At the wet mill, the cherries are pre-cleaned and sorted before being laid out on the raised beds to dry.

The critical challenge of natural processing lies in enabling only the desired flavors to develop in order for a high level of quality to be achieved. To do this, it is necessary for the lots to include only healthy, ripe cherries. Further, the cherries must dry evenly until the target moisture level is reached, in a process that takes between 10 to 12 days.

Facilitating both requires the keen attention and careful manual labor of the farmers who select and sort the cherries, and the washing station workers who monitor the moisture levels and carry out activities like turning the cherries over at regular intervals and covering them with the appropriate material in case of unfavorable weather conditions.

In this lot, the natural process gave way to an elegantly aromatic cup with complementary berry sweetness and vibrance of citrus.