Ethiopia Tulise Natural

WHO

This coffee comes from the Tulise washing station, owned and run by Hirut Gute. Hirut is a third-generation coffee producer who started out buying and producing natural coffees around Yirgacheffe. In 2022, she opened Tulise, making her one of only a handful of women in all of Ethiopia who own and manage a washing station.

Tulise sources most of its cherries from around 500 smallholder farmers in the Tulise village and a few neighboring communities. Hirut works alongside SNAP, an exporter focused on high-quality coffees from Gedeo and Guji. SNAP helps with financing, quality control, and processing techniques, which means Tulise turns out excellent washed and natural coffees, plus small, unique microlots like this one.

WHAT

This is a natural process coffee, meaning the whole cherry dries around the seed, giving the cup its deep fruit and sweetness. Once cherries arrive at Tulise, they’re spread on raised beds and sorted for ripeness. From there, they’re turned by hand throughout the day to dry evenly, a process that takes roughly 15 to 20 days depending on the weather.

The varieties are JARC selections, notably 74110 and 74112, along with other Indigenous landraces. In the cup, expect bright berry tones that move into dried red fruit, balanced by a lemony, citric acidity and a chocolate-cocoa note that builds in the finish as it cools.

WHERE

Tulise kebele (village) sits 18 km east of the town of Yirgacheffe in southern Ethiopia. Yirgacheffe is the name of both a small town and a woreda (district), but as a coffee name it covers a much bigger area, mostly the Gedeo Zone, named after the Gedeo people. Gedeo is split into seven woredas: Dilla, Dilla Zuria, Bule, Wenago, Yirgacheffe, Kochere, and Gedeb.

Heading east from Yirgacheffe town, the land climbs fast, from just under 1,900 meters to over 2,300, with some farms reaching 2,400. Farms here are tiny, usually 1 to 2 hectares with about half planted in coffee. They’re often called “garden” farms because families grow food crops alongside their coffee, especially enset, a false banana used to make a traditional bread called cocho.