About This Coffee
The Konga village lies close to the town of Yirgacheffe in the Gedeo zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region. The village has a couple of wet mills where farmers can sell their cherry. The mills take care of processing the cherries and drying the parchment to produce this clean and flavorful Fully washed coffee.
Cultivation
Coffee from Konga is typically grown on a very small scale in the garden of the producer, where it is intercropped with other subsistence crops. The red-brown soils in the area have a high iron content and a depth of over 1.5m.
This is important for coffee because deep soils allow for the development of an extensive root system, meaning that the coffee plant can get more nutrients and moisture from the soil. A deeper root system also means stronger and taller trees. Soil depth also dictates the soil moisture storage and nutrient storage capacity. Deeper soils naturally have more nutrients and moisture available for the plants growing in them.
Soil and its nutrients can be regionally specific, varying with local geology. The soils in Konga (and basically the entire larger Gedeo zone), as mentioned before, have high iron content. Iron is one of the micronutrients that play an important role in the coffee plant's functioning. The nutrient is needed to produce chlorophyll, which is essential for photosynthesis, allowing the plant to absorb energy from light. High iron soils, together with many other factors, of course, give the plant more energy to grow and produce cherries.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked by farmers and delivered to washing stations and local collectors. Cherry is pulped and coffee is placed in tanks or buckets to ferment. Once fermentation is complete, parchment is thoroughly washed with clean spring water to remove all traces of fermented mucilage. Parchment is typically dried on beds under shade for 10 up to 12 days. The clean, dry parchment is stored in a warehouse with a region label. Later, parchment is graded and hulled to prepare for export.
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.