To celebrate this winter, we’ve thought of a fantastic single origin from Ethiopia, which best represents the flavors of this chilly season.

This lot is an experiment of the producer Israel Degfa. In addition to being prepared in accordance to a honey process, which is very rare for Ethiopian coffees, it comes from the Qore site, which is one of the washing stations where Israel has heavily invested to obtaining high-quality specialty coffee. For example, this year a density selection system has been installed, to remove the cherries over and under ripe. Qore is also the name of kebele (the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia) where the washing station is located. It is in the woreda of Kochere, Gedeo area.

The station collects and processes the cherries of the small owners of the surrounding areas. The average size of the plantations there is about 1 hectare. A farmer can generally have less than 1500 trees per hectare, and each tree typically produces cherries of less than 100 to 200 grams of green coffee. Usually, the coffee plants are shadowed by taller native trees such as Wanza, Berber, Sasa, and Shola.

The preparation of this coffee is very unusual and unique in Ethiopia: it has been processed as honey.

The cherries are firstly density checked in water to remove the immature, which float. A second manual selection is then carried out, and the skin is finally removed, along with a minimal amount of pulp, using a mechanical depulper. The beans are again classified by density into three gr, and only the densest ones are processed as honey. Without removing further pulp, the beans are disposed in a layer of medium thickness under the sun, where they dry slowly, being moved very little during the day and covered at night. After a few days, the parchment, now sticky, is removed and the beans are further dried under the sun for about 20 days on raised beds. During this period, defective beans are continuously sought and removed.

This coffee is excellent as espresso and also as filter, that’s why we decided to use two different roasting profiles. In the cup, it shows notes of rose, orange peel, candied peach, ripe tropical fruit, with a pleasant balance between the different notes.

WINTER FILTER SOLD OUT