About This Coffee
The Suke Quto washing station, owned by Sookoo Coffee, was built in 2018. Its name comes from the kebele where the washing station is located.
The washing station offers premium prices, training, a second payment, road construction, and school support to local communities.
Cultivation
Farming methods in the region 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.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherries are selectively handpicked and sorted by trained workers who remove underripe, overripe, or damaged cherries. This ensures only the highest quality cherries are processed.
The cherries are dried on raised beds for 21 to 28 days until they reach the desired moisture percentage.
Sookoo Coffee
Sucafina has worked with Sookoo coffee since 2019. Sookoo Coffee is a family-owned company led by Ture Waji. Sookoo produces high-quality organic and specialty coffee. Sookoo is named after the Ethiopian word for gold. Like gold, coffee is precious and Sookoo’s name reflects the care and attention they pay to their coffees.
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.