About This Coffee
Tadesse Edema founded Barkume Coffee Export PLC in 2012 to source, process and export excellent quality Ethiopian coffee for global consumers.
Tadesse grew up in Gurachu, where he founded his first washing station in 1989. Since then, he’s established several other washing stations and farms across Guji. This coffee is sourced from the Gurachu washing station.
Cultivation
Farming methods in Guji remain largely traditional. Guji farmers typically intercrop their coffee plants with other food crops. This method is common among smallholders because it maximizes land use and provides food for their families.
In addition to remaining traditionally intercropped, most farms are also traditional and organic-by-default. Farmers in Guji typically use very few—if any—fertilizers or pesticides. Most farm work is done manually and very few tasks are mechanized, even during processing.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Farmers selectively handpick ripe, red cherry and deliver it to Barkume’s washing stations. At intake, cherry is carefully evaluated, and only ripe, dense cherry is selected for these top lots.
Accepted cherry is pulped on a disc pulper and fermented in water. Following fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and laid on raised beds to dry. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 7 days for parchment to dry.
Once dry, parchment is bagged and stored in warehouses on-site for 3 to 5 months before being transferred to a dry mill in Addis Ababa.
Coffee in Ethiopia
While Ethiopia is famous as coffee’s birthplace, today it remains a specialty coffee industry darling for its incredible variety of flavors. While full traceability has been difficult in recent history, new regulations have made direct purchasing possible. We’re partnering directly with farmers to help them produce top quality specialty lots that are now completely traceable, adding value for farmers and roasters, alike.
The exceptional quality of Ethiopian coffee is due to a combination of factors. The genetic diversity of coffee varieties means that we find a diversity of flavor, even between (or within) farms with similar growing conditions and processing. In addition to varieties, processing methods also contribute to end quality. The final key ingredients for excellent coffee in Ethiopia are the producing traditions that have created the genetic diversity, processing infrastructure and great coffee we enjoy today.
Most producers in Ethiopia are smallholders, and the majority continue to cultivate coffee using traditional methods. As a result, most coffee is grown with no chemical fertilizer or pesticide use. Coffee is almost entirely cultivated, harvested and dried using manual systems.