Every spring, fresh harvests start arriving from origin, and the first washed Ethiopian is always the one we look forward to most. Fluffy Petals is this year’s: a lot we tasted and chose ourselves at Lalesa Washing Station in Gedeb. Purple florals, citrus, grilled peaches, subtle hops. It tastes like the season it arrived in.
The cherries are collected manually and hand sorted later. They are placed directly in the hopper that is connected to the pulping machine (a traditional Agaarde Disc Pulper). The coffee flows from the hopper down to the pulper, and the pulper removes the skin and pulp. The machine is designed to conduct grading of high and low quality (1st and 2nd), based on density. The coffee is then fermented under water in tanks for an average of 72 hours, but any time frame between 48 – 100 hours is within the norm. The coffee is graded again in channels, so that the cherries of lower quality (with a lower density) will float. They are removed, leaving the denser, higher quality beans to be separated as higher-grade lots. The parchment is soaked in clean water and then dried on raised beds for approximately 8 – 20 days. The coffee is dried in layers of 2-8 cm, depending on the climate, the type of tables, and the stage of drying.