

Ethiopia
Competition Series
QUALITY SCORE: 90.00
Cup Notes
Elder Flower / Raspberry / Sherbet / Orange / Rose / Pear
Suggested for espresso and filter
when we roast
We freshly roast to order all coffees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding national holidays), and ship the same day! Cut-off time is 11:59pm (UTC+1) of the day before the roast day. *We only ship whole beans*
Guji Wubanchi station is a cherry-processing facility in Mesina, Guji zone. This region borders the now famous Yirgacheffe district, the coffees from which have dominated specialty production for a number of years. The combination of high altitude, fertile soil, consistent and plentiful rains, and an abundance of local knowledge are all contributing factors to the high status of Yirgacheffe coffees. The station is situated at 1,980 masl and processes cherries from hundreds of local smallholder farmers.
‘Supernatural’ is their processing method which augments the traditional natural sun-drying process by creating the environment for controlled aerobic fermentation in the drying phase.
Ethiopian heirlooms, why the generic name? It's estimated that there are somewhere in-between six and ten thousand coffee varietals in Ethiopia. And due to this colossal figure, there hasn’t been the genetic testing to allow buyers to distinguish the varietal. With the cross pollination that naturally happens in the wild, the name ‘Ethiopian Heirloom’ exists as a catch-all phrase to describe this happenstance. However, that really makes Ethiopian quite a mystery – and an interesting mystery as each village or town could potentially have a different varietal which could carry very unique properties.
In traditional Ethiopian specialty natural processing, cherries are spread in a thin layer on a raised bed and dried in indirect or direct sunlight. For supernatural, cherries are spread in a thicker layer on racks in a semi-permeable box, restricting access to sunlight while allowing limited airflow and oxygenation. This prolongs the overall drying time and increases the natural fermentation of the latent sugars in the cherries over the course of the drying period.
In order to ensure consistency, prevent over-fermentation, and avoid mould formation, it is essential that the conditions are strictly monitored throughout the drying/fermentation process. Temperature, Brix (the measure of sugar content in cherries) and moisture readings are recorded periodically and small adjustments to airflow and ambient temperature are made accordingly.
Once the optimum moisture content has been reached (around 12.5%) the cherries are rested in a cool environment prior to secondary processing - hulling, grading, sorting, handpicking and bagging in Grainpro for export.