Ethiopia Guji Yabitu Koba Washed

Roast Level: Light
Variety: Ethiopia Landrace
Process: Washed
Region: Guji, Oromia, Ethiopia 
Elevation: 2316 m

We taste: Raspberry, key lime, hibiscus

Yabitu Koba comes to us from Guji's Uraga district in Ethiopia's Oromia region. Oromia is the largest region of Ethiopia, home to more than 30 million people. Guji is one of the oldest coffee-growing areas in Ethiopia. Koba (Oromiffa for false banana, a banana relative grown for its starchy stem rather than fruit) is a remote kebele (town) that's difficult to access, especially during the rainy season.

Koba houses a processing center where local producers drop off their cherry, which they transport from their farms via horse, mule, or donkey. Farms are between 30 and 90 minutes away along dirt roads that become muddy and hazardous during the rainy season, and the harvest runs December to February. These cherries were washed and fermented 48-60 hours in cement tanks, then dried 7-8 days on raised beds.

Koba's producers intercrop false banana, maize, and native shade trees in fertile, self-sufficient sandy loam soil. The farmers, part of the Oromo people, maintain a lifestyle built almost entirely around coffee farming, and are recognized by the specialty coffee world for their dedication, ancestral wisdom, and phenomenal quality.