Ethiopia Yirgacheffe - Halo Beriti

Halo Beriti Washing Station was founded in 2014 and serves around 750 small farmers, who deliver the freshly harvested coffee cherries to the station for processing. This particular microlot of Halo Beriti coffee has been processed via the "special preparation" method, during which the beans are sorted by hand during delivery and drying. This ensures that only the highest quality Grade 1 coffee beans make it to the coffee bags.

Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. This is the reason the Dembi coffee is a result of the efforts of many small farmers, who use traditional growing and processing methods. This approach not only preserves the unique tasting profile of the coffee, but also helps the sustainable development of the local community.

Among coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia holds near-legendary status not only because it’s the “birthplace” of Arabica coffee, but also because it is simply unlike every other place in the coffee world. Unlike the vast majority of coffee-growing countries, the plant was not introduced as a cash crop through colonization. Instead, growing, processing, and drinking coffee is part of the everyday way of life, and has been for centuries, since the trees were discovered growing wild in forests and eventually cultivated for household use and commercial sale.

The Yirgacheffe region is plentiful. The thick vegetation is a product of the warm tropical climate with moderate wet and dry seasons. Most coffee is shade-grown by small producers using organic practices. Coffees are cultivated from 1600 to 2400 MASL in these highlands. The multitude of microregions creates complex profiles depending on the washing station a particular coffee is from.

With the special preparation (what the producers generally call “Premium” in Ethiopia) the cherries are collected from a limited
number of small-holder farmers. 90% of the cherries are perfectly picked, the right red color, 5% semi red and 5% overripe. All
of it is processed and stored it separately from the other lots. They generally produce a very small number of bags in this way
every year. In most instances, cherries used to produce these lots are collected from a day lot (picked in one day). Natural
coffees in Ethiopia are first sorted for ripeness and quality before being rinsed clean Then they are spread on raised drying
beds or tables, where they will be rotated constantly throughout the course of drying. Drying can take an average of 8–25
days, depending on the weather.

Heirloom is often used to refer to varieties that are native to the country, many of which are still found in the wild today. It is estimated that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 heirloom varieties in Ethiopia today.