Washing Station: Refisa
The Testi West Arsi Washing Station was established in 2010 and serves about 850
smallholder producers in the area. The farmers deliver their cherry to the washing
station, where it is depulped, fermented for 24–48 hours, and washed before being
dried on raised beds for 12–15 days.Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very
small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of
smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central
processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a
receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station
and dried on raised beds.The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to
sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the
harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually
impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up
in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult. We do,
however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing stations every year, through our export partners and their connections with mills
and washing stations.Typically farmers in this region don't have access to and
therefore do not utilize fertilizers or pesticides in the production of coffee.
Process: Washed
The process of producing Washed coffees in Ethiopia will vary slightly from washing station to washing station, but generally
speaking the coffee is picked ripe and depulped the same day. There is usually a fermentation period of 8–12 hours in open-air
tanks, then washed in water channels to remove the mucilage. The coffee seeds will be spread on raised beds to dry for 5–15
days, depending on the weather.
Variety: Heirloom Ethiopian Varieties
Although this offering is not traceable to a single variety, it is comprised of native heirloom varieties cultivated in Ethiopia.
Region: West Arsi
West Arsi is a high-elevation area near the center of Ethiopia experiencing subtropical climates. The washing stations
throughout West Arsi service hundreds of smallholder producers. The mixture of dark and red soil creates coffees that are very
clean and elegant in profile.
Country: Ethiopia
Among coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia holds near-legendary status not only because it’s the “birthplace” of Arabica
coffee, but also because it is simply unlike every other place in the coffee world. Unlike the vast majority of coffee-growing
countries, the plant was not introduced as a cash crop through colonization. Instead, growing, processing, and drinking coffee
is part of the everyday way of life, and has been for centuries since the trees were discovered growing wild in forests and
eventually cultivated for household use and commercial sale.The majority of Ethiopia’s farmers are smallholders and
sustenance farmers, with less than 1 hectare of land apiece. In many cases, it is almost more accurate to describe these farms
as “coffee gardens” as the trees do sometimes grow in more of a garden or forest environment than what we imagine fields of
farmland to look like. There are some large privately owned estates, as well as co-operative societies comprising a mix of
small and more mid-size farms, but the average producer here grows relatively very little for commercial sale.