Ethiopia | Sidamo Mewa | Heirloom Natural Grade 1

Around 650 smallholder farmers deliver hand-picked cherry to the Mewa washing station in the Nensebo woreda. Farms here average 2 to 9 hectares, and the trip to the station is long enough that some farmers still deliver by donkey. The station floats and sorts the cherry for defects, then dries it whole on raised beds for 10 to 20 days, turned constantly to keep the drying even. The lot cupped at 87.25 points.

Mewa sits in West Arsi, high country that was classified as part of the Sidama growing region before Ethiopia redrew its zones. Humidity is high, temperatures are cool, and farms sit above 2,000 metres in sandy loam soil. Most families here farm with few or no agrochemicals, and coffee is the main cash crop alongside food crops grown for the household.

West Arsi coffees come mainly from Wolisho and Kurume, local landrace varieties, grown alongside selections from the Jimma Agricultural Research Center. Landraces adapted to this high, cool country over generations and thrive with minimal inputs.

These varieties handle natural processing well. The small dense beans keep the cup clean when the drying is done right, as it is here.

You get strawberry, plum and stone fruit in this cup, with a smooth, round body. Roasted for espresso, that round body carries the fruit straight through milk.