Chelbesa Lot 4

Farm:  Chelbesa
Owner:  SNAP Specialty Coffee + 495 smallholder farmers
Location:  Chelbesa, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
Altitude:  1950-2200 masl
Varietal:  Heirloom
Process:  Natural
Tasting Notes:  Strawberry, orange, molasses and lively

We sourced this coffee through Falcon Coffee who had the following to share:

Located in the Gedeo zone of the Gedeb district, Chelbesa is one of the finest coffee producing areas within the famous Gedeb Woreda. Known for its dense layered semi-forest vegetation structure encompassing false banana trees as well as shade-grown coffee trees, Chelbesa is a great example of best coffee growing agro-ecology.

SNAP Specialty Coffee built their new wet mill in 2019 in a small hamlet called Danche within the Chelbesa Village with the hope of reaching out to purchasing exclusively red cherries from the nearby farmers in Chelbesa Village. Their ambition became a reality after completion of the project.

The fermentation tanks of the wet mill were built using ceramic which will help bring clarity in the coffee that they process as well as help speed up the fermentation through the heat retained by the ceramic.

This lot has been put together with the production of 495 smallholders farmers delivering their cherries to the mill, in the area the most common type of soil is redbrown, a particularly fertile type, rich in iron and with high acidity content.

This particular lot has been processed as a traditional natural from the cherry deliveries that constitute the second part of the harvest.

Cherries are received and sorted with the help of a series of floatation tank that separates all floaters (under ripe cherry) and immature cherry, during the process of flotation the cherry gets cleaned with fresh water before being placed on raised African drying beds for a period of 28 to 35 days.