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Chelbesa Washing Station
This lot was processed at the Chelbesa washing station, near the village of Chelbesa in the Gedeb woreda of the Gedeo Zone. Farming families here work plots under 2 hectares and measure their farms in trees rather than area. Coffee grows in fertile red soil above 2,000 metres, under dense semi-forest with ensete and native shade trees, intercropped with food crops and organic by default. Ripe cherry dries whole on raised beds for 15 to 19 days, turned regularly for steady, even drying. The lot cupped at 86.5 points.
Chelbesa is owned and operated by SNAP Coffee Trading. It is worth being clear about a name that gets muddled constantly: Chelbesa and Danche are two different washing stations. SNAP run both in Gedeb, and Danche sits in a sub-area of the wider Chelbesa locality — which is why you will see roasters use the two names interchangeably. They are not interchangeable. This coffee is from Chelbesa.
Yirgacheffe
Yirgacheffe sits in the Gedeo Zone of southern Ethiopia and produces some of the most celebrated coffees in the world. High elevation slows cherry maturation, which builds sugar and acidity in the bean and adds complexity to the final cup.
Worth knowing: "Yirgacheffe" is a recognised coffee-growing classification rather than a precise administrative location. Administratively this coffee sits in the Gedeb woreda of the Gedeo Zone — but it is graded, traded and sold as Yirgacheffe, and that is the name that carries meaning in a cup.
About the Heirloom Variety
The heirloom label here covers Dega, Kurume and Wolisho, landrace varieties native to the Gedeo highlands. Landraces developed from wild coffee populations over centuries and adapted to local soil, altitude and rainfall. Farmers grow them with few inputs because the plants suit the place they came from.
Roasters seek out Yirgacheffe landraces for clarity in the cup. Careful natural processing at this altitude layers ripe fruit over that clean structure.
In this cup you get raspberry and stone fruit, with slight almond and milk chocolate underneath. Roasted for espresso, that fruit stays lifted and the chocolate carries it through milk.