Ethiopia Margarissa Chelbesa

A well-balanced natural Ethiopian coffee that works for an interesting espresso and a cozy filter cup. Enjoy the apricot fruitiness with a touch of floral, moving toward cocoa powder in the finish. 

Chelbesa washing station is located at 2100 masl, closer to Worka Town in Gedeb (an area we often refer to as Yirgacheffe in coffee). Chelbesa is the largest growing area in Gedeb, with a total area of 1240 hectares of coffee farms. This specific station buys cherries from approximately 615 farmers all located in the area. Their farms are on average between 0.5 to 2 hectares in size, and sit between 1925 and 2110 masl. The location of this washing station is close to the farms which means that no farmer needs to transport their cherries for more than 40 minutes before reaching the station. The station manager is Girum Assefa.

Harvest and cherry selection

Cherries are collected manually and hand sorted later.

Pulping and pre-grading

The cherries are pulped by a traditional Agaarde Discpulper. Skin and fruit pulp are removed before the machine grades the parchment in water as 1st or 2nd quality, determined by density.

Fermentation

Wet fermentation for 72 hours

Washing and grading in channels

Coffees are washed in channels, and graded in water by density. The lower density (lower quality) will float and are removed, leaving only the denser and therefore higher quality beans which are separated as higher grade lots.

Soaked under clean water

After fermentation, soaking takes place for 2 hours

Drying and hand-sorting

Coffee is then piled up in layers which are 2cm in height and dried over a 10 day period then followed by hand sorting for 2-4 hours