Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural Idido

Regional Details:

Idido is part of Yirgacheffe, one of 8 woredas, or districts, that together comprise the dense and competitive highland zone of Gedeo. (The entire Gedeo zone is often referred to as “Yirgacheffe” thanks to the notoriety of this particular district.) Idido is one of Ethiopia’s best-known communities. It’s centrally located among Yirgacheffe producers, being just a few kilometers outside the town of Yirga Chefe itself—a surprisingly small community given its mythical stature as one of the world’s most gifted coffee landscapes. As a coffee terroir, this part of Gedeo has for decades been considered a benchmark for beauty and complexity in arabica coffee—known for being beguilingly ornate and jasmine-like when fully washed, and seductively punchy and sweet when sundried--and hardly requires an introduction.

Processing Details:

Private processors will often attempt to collaborate with select communities to keep the coffee traceable and the terroir focused. For this lot, the processing station, managed by Mesele Haile, and hundreds of farmers from the Idido community contribute cherries to the station.  Cherries are all floated for density and then placed directly onto drying beds, where they will be consistently turned and rotated for the few weeks that drying requires. The beds are covered at night to protect the cherry from settling humidity, as well as for a few hours each afternoon to prevent scorching from the searingly-hot midday sun.

Exporting Details:

It’s tough being a private processor in Gedeo, as the sheer density of competition among stations tends to push cherry prices as high as double throughout a single harvest, and private stations often don’t have the backing of a larger union to secure financing, regulate cherry prices, or bring export costs down with centralized milling and marketing. Successful private stations need standout quality processors and must also be excellent business developers with connections and community standing to continue winning the business of farmers and buyers alike, and stay afloat for the long term.