Ethiopia Lalesa - Natural

This coffee is from the heavily populated Gedeo zone of what is known as the “Yirgacheffe” region by the coffee trade. It comes to us from a washing station owned by Alemayehu Tilahu, located near the town of Kebele. The mill was only built in 2018, and is nestled into the dense, shade-forested area. Alemayehu is from the area, and has been working in coffee for two decades - he was one of the national winners of the Cup of Excellence in 2020! He has cultivated strong relationships with producers in the area, and they trust him when delivering their cherries to his washing station.

The station is at about 2150 masl, which is an important detail as altitude contributes to complexity of acidity and sweetness levels. The region itself that has near perfect weather conditions for growing, drying and processing coffee, which is why "Yirgacheffe" has become a name synonymous with quality industry wide.

Purchasing coffee from Ethiopia is always complex, but recent rule changes to the way coffee can be bought for export has significantly helped increase the value producers receive for their hard work and product. The main reason this coffee is so good is because of the hard work of hundreds of pairs of hands of smallholder farmers and the organizational infrastructure provided by the washing station owner, with an example of this is being that this coffee was left to dry in cherry on outdoor drying tables, with defects being sorted out by hand. We're so grateful to have it on offering this season!

We purchased this lot through our partners at Shared Source, as they consistently do an excellent job with pricing transparency, farmer support and finding stand-out lots that we are fortunate to be able to share with you. Natural Ethiopia's are consistently some of our favourite offering's of the year, with wild but still palatable profiles that burst with notes of berries, citrus, and sweetness. This coffee does just that!

Notes of lime, blueberry, graham cracker.

Varietals: Heirloom Ethiopian Varietals
Region: Gedeb Woreda, Gedeo Zone (Yirgacheffe), Ethiopia
Altitude: 2150 MASL
Processing: Natural