Ethiopia Yirgacheffe – Reko – Archived

Taste: A classic Yirgacheffe, our cup produced a spicy pallete and dark finish.  A robust cup on its own, this bean is also a good blender addition to a Costa Rican or Guatemalan base.   Add some Brazil and develop your own unique Espresso blend!

Roast: We roasted this bean at Medium (City Roast) , pulling just after 1st crack and were rewarded with a tart and flavorful cup.  Roasting to just into 2nd crack added a nice dark finish, but no bitterness.  Makes a great Espresso.

For more roasting information, check out: Ethiopian coffee: a roasters guide

About:  We consider Ethiopian coffees to be some of the best in the world. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee: it is in the forests of the Kaffa region that Coffea Arabica grew wild. Coffee is “Bun” or “Buna” in Ethiopia, so Coffee Bean is quite possibly a poor anglicized interpretation of “Kaffa Bun.”

Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia grow many different heirloom varieties of native Arabica coffee beans, which also grow wild on forested land throughout the country.

Ripe coffee cherries are harvested daily and delivered to local coffee co-ops or washing stations, where the coffee is processed and prepared for transport to Addis.
At the countryside washing stations coffees are either wet or dry-processed, depending on the intention of the miller, or the abundance or lack of water.
Washed Ethiopians show vividly bright cups, with high acidity and clean fruit and floral notes. Dry or natural-processed coffees dry with the fruit skin intact. This technique produces a very different profile: mild acidity, rustic fruited flavors, and usually a heavier body.

Reko washing station is named after Reko-Mountain, a tall and skinny mountain that towers above the hills of Kochere. Reko, translated in Afaan Oromo, means challenge. It refers to the challenge of climbing Reko-mountain. Masreshu and Faysel adopted the name and its symbolic value. It is their challenge to cultivate the best Yirgacheffe coffee.

During harvest, which normally takes place between late October and mid-January, about 850 farmers bring their red cherries to the washing station. The Reko washing station is an example for neighboring washing stations, they sustain coffee communities and deliver amazing coffee, year after year. Incoming coffee is washed with water from a nearby river, after which are pulped with an old Agard pulping-machine. The mucilage is removed by traditional fermentation, which lasts 36-48 hours depending on the weather conditions. The coffee is then dried on raised African beds for 10-12 days.

According to the Reko-team, the success of the washing station is threefold. First and foremost, the training and education of staff and suppliers. A good protocol can only be implemented by equipped staff members and farmers. Testi Coffee gives pre-harvest training to all partners.

Secondly, good selection and separation; only red cherries are selected, and processed coffees are kept separate by harvesting-time (early, mid, late), and geographical area (Onancho, Debo, Shashamene, Hamma, Beloya).

Finally, monitoring and control; Reko-lots are assigned to professional site managers, whom, with their vast experience in coffee processing, control every aspect of Reko-lots from cherry to warehouse delivery, anticipating on changes and separating deviating lots.

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