ETHIOPIA Halo Beriti ESP

The Story Behind the Bean

Yirgacheffe may be the best-known name in specialty coffee, and yet it remains an area of very small plots. In the Gedeo zone, around the village of Halo Beriti, a farmer has an average of one and a half hectares. Coffee grows there among fruit trees and vegetable gardens—the kind of garden coffee you won't find quite the same way anywhere else.

The cherries are processed at the Gedeb Banko Taratu washing station, operated by Bemen Coffee. Bemen was founded by Berhanu and Membere, a couple who have been involved with Ethiopian coffee for decades. Together, they work with more than three thousand smallholder farmers across the country's main coffee-growing regions, paying premiums for cherries that merit them. This lot comes from a small group of farmers around Halo Beriti. We sourced it through Sucafina.

Two Numbers and a Landrace

The label lists JARC 74110 and JARC 74112. Those numbers look like product codes, but they’re catalog codes. In 1974, the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre ventured into the Ethiopian forest in search of coffee trees that could survive coffee berry disease and still taste good. What they found was given a year and a number.

The important detail: nothing was crossed with foreign genes. These are selections from Ethiopian forests, so the genetic richness remains where it originated—and you can taste it. The lot also includes local landraces: local populations that have grown in these gardens for generations. Each farmer contributes their own trees to the same lot.

Altitude, Processing & Quality

The plots sit between 2,100 and 2,300 meters—exceptionally high, even for Yirgacheffe. At that altitude, the cherries ripen slowly, resulting in a dense bean with lots of stored sugar. That’s where the stone fruit and honey come from, along with a bright but never sharp acidity.

When they arrive at the station, the cherries are hand-sorted and passed through a water bath so the unripe ones float. Next comes pulping, 36 to 48 hours of fermentation, and a thorough wash in concrete channels. Drying takes place in two stages: first, two days on shade nets, then another ten to twelve days on raised beds in the sun. This slow start prevents the exterior from drying out before the center catches up. Final sorting takes place in Addis Ababa.

The result is a Grade 1 lot that we cupped at 86.5. We roast this Yirgacheffe light for espresso, with a little more development for body. Expect a bright shot: bergamot and lemon up front, peach and mango in the middle, and honey with milk chocolate at the finish. It works well on its own, but holds up in milk, too.