Reports from Ethiopia—Part Four

by

Editorial Policy

Published on

Last updated on

Deribe Wubayehu, Ethiopian coffee farmer.

Since November 2016, Emily McIntyre has been living in Ethiopia with her husband and five-year-old daughter, Eire. As part of their work with Catalyst Coffee Consulting, the McIntyres have been traveling around the country to partner with producers, mills, and processing/export professionals. Their efforts are focused on education, deepening relationships, and moving toward truly progressive Ethiopian coffee. Read part onepart two, and part three.

[T]he Land Cruisers take us as far as they can: a narrow copse of thorny bushes pointing to a long, muddy lane. The lane leads past a circular threshing floor, surrounded by golden domes of hay, and up the mountain to Deribe Wubayehu’s farm. The hot mountain sun scalds our heads as we hike; a growing tail of youngsters follows, hooting with excitement.

Deribe’s coffee farm is one of the most beautiful we have seen anywhere in the world. He takes a palpable pride in ushering guests to the small patio by his house and feeding them the coarse, waxy golden honey he nurtures on his farm. Wide drying beds stripe the lawn by his house, where beautiful red cherries lie shriveling. The beds rise as high as the neck of the girl carrying her naked-ass brother on her hip, and they are too wide for only one person to reach across to stir the cherries.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

(Photos: Emily McIntyre.)

This will be our third year tasting Deribe’s coffee. Michael has given him feedback, and we’ve visited his farm several times to both learn about it and to make suggestions for better processing. Standing there with the hike still drying on me, I feel a shiver go down my spine when he says, “I used the floating tanks like you said,” then retrieves a wide blue bucket to show us.

In November we brought plastic buckets and demonstrated how by floating freshly picked cherries in water for a few minutes, agitating them—water droplets flying in the sun—every once in a while, the lower-density cherries would rise to the top and leave the healthier cherries in the bottom. The water can be reused many times. We demonstrated, and it was fun, but we weren’t certain if anyone would incorporate the additional step into their processing.

Deribe points to the pile of deformed, green, and flawed cherries resting on the far end of the drying table. “These are the floaters,” he says, and extends a long finger to a beautifully uniform batch of coffee just a day or two off the trees nearby. “This is the coffee after we removed them.”

In a recent cupping event in Gololcha, Deribe’s 2017 coffee stood out with memorable qualities: peach pie; deep, spicy mango; and madeira. The results are in the cup, and it’s a huge validation for all of our work, on both sides of the world.

Emily McIntyre is a regular contributor to Fresh Cup, and the co-founder of Catalyst Coffee Consulting and Crema.co.

Share This Article

Emily McIntyre

Join 7,000+ coffee pros and get top stories, deals, and other industry goodies in your inbox each week.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.


Other Articles You May Like

Decaf Coffee, But Make It Specialty

Decaf coffee has come a long way over the last one hundred years, but can it join the third wave?
by Fionn Pooler | February 16, 2024

Welcoming Home Baristas Into Coffee: “It’s On Us, The Professionals”

More and more folks are finding a passion for coffee through swipes and likes, but who is the home barista? How can roasters and cafes welcome them into the larger coffee community?
by Miranda Haney | January 12, 2024

The Prototype of All Desire: How Processing Can Increase—and Improve—Sweetness in Robusta

Sweetness in coffee is often a marker of quality, but it’s often ignored when talking about Robusta. But small changes at the farm level can be the key to finding more sweetness in Robusta.
by Mikey Rinaldo | December 15, 2023

Latte Art and Alternative Milks: The Good, The Bad, and the Tasty

Milk steaming is a hard-earned skill; alternative milks don’t make this task easier. But with a few tips, you can easily toggle from oat to soy to almond.
by Zoe Stanley-Foreman | December 13, 2023