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Ethiopia Yirgacheffe - Bedhatu Jibicho
$22.00
Summary
Bedhatu Jibicho has an amazing life story. Her family’s journey in coffee is emblematic of the recent changes in the Ethiopian export rules, which in the past few years have opened new opportunities for individual farmers to export their own coffee, rather than limit exportation to cooperative unions and private companies. Bedhatu is native to the Worka area in the Gedeb district of Yirgacheffe. Her late husband was granted the family land in the 1960s from the Ethiopian government. After he passed away in 1991, Bedhatu continued to single-handedly manage the farm while raising all six of their children. She eventually joined the larger Worka cooperative in 2011, and then the nearby Banko Gotiti cooperative when it formed in 2013, both part of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union (YCFCU). In the same year she was recognized as a model farmer by the union and became eligible for processing training that would allow her to prepare and sell her own coffee as a separate lot, marketed and handled by the union as part of a new program of differentiation.
Grower: Bedhatu Jibicho
Variety: Indigenous Heirloom
Region: Gedeb, Yirgacheffe
Altitude: 1,800-1,900 Meters
Process: Full Natural
Roast Level: Medium/Dark
Brewing Recommendations: This coffee is great when brewed in a Chemex, French Press and everyday drip machine.
Flavor Profile
This coffee offers some amazing ripe fig notes at first taste. This brings a nice light floral note up front, almost like honeysuckle. As it cools, you get some golden raisin and subtle strawberry notes. At finish it brings some nice sweet tobacco richness. This is one coffee you don't want to miss.
Farm Detail
Bedhatu’s sons had joined the family farm effort a few years prior, and with their help and the union’s blessing. The family eventually formulated a separate business entity that could export direct. That business, Roba and Family Coffee, is perhaps the most successful single-farm exporter we know of in Gedeb. While the Roba family has expanded their reach to support other producers this specific offering comes from Bedhatu’s original 84-acre farm, which she has personally managed for over 50 years now without the use of chemical inputs.
The majority of our coffees come from farms much smaller than this offering. You may wonder if this coffee will have the same rich details and amazing profile you have grown to love from small farms. I can say without a doubt this is a stunner! This farm employs 20 year-round workers and another 130 seasonal workers for the harvest who are primarily women. The farm itself produces about 5 containers of exportable coffee each year, all of which is among the most sought-after Ethiopia profiles available.
Processing & Social Impact
For this natural lot, cherries are carefully hand sorted and floated to separate out less dense beans, then immediately spread out on raised beds in a single layer where it is dried over a period of 12 to 20 days and hand sorted continuously. The drying cherry is often covered in the mid-afternoons to prevent cracking or uneven evaporation during the hours of intense sun. As a family-owned business, emphasis on social impact in the communities where they source coffee is taking shape. The Roba family has invested in more localized cherry collection sites to reduce the transportation cost for other producers. They have also contributed to road construction projects that make travel easier for everyone.
Type: Roasted Coffee