Aricha, Espresso - Ethiopia

The Aricha washing station in Yirgacheffe is located at 1,925 masl. More than 300 farmers from the surrounding area deliver their hand picked coffee cherries to Aricha. The agricultural methods of the region remain largely traditional, organic and where intercropping is common to best optimize their land use. 

To take advantage of the exceptional climate, this station offers training to help farmers produce better quality cherries. The training covers the procedures for harvesting and transporting cherries.

The farmers pick the cherries by hand and deliver them to the washing station. Once the coffee cherries arrive at Aricha they are manually sorted to remove unripe or damaged cherries. The cherries are then pulped and fermented for 36 to 48 hours in the station's 12 standardised fermentation tanks. After fermentation, the parchment is washed with clean water and transferred to one of the 280 raised drying beds in the station. The parchment is regularly raked to ensure uniform drying. Drying takes about 18 days. The station identifies each drying bed by a code that simplifies the monitoring of traceability and processing status.

All accepted cherries are then laid in thin layers on raised beds for about 18 days. The station has 280 drying beds. Each bed is identified by a code that simplifies the monitoring of traceability and processing status.

• Region: Yirgacheffe
• Country: Ethiopia
• Elevation: 1,925 - 1,945 masl
• Variety: JARC, Heirloom
• Process: Washed