Tropical fruit, raisin, mango, winery
Wate is a fairly new processing station which was established by the Charissa Family back in 2019. Charissa family has long history in the coffee industry where one of the other processing station is the Kilenso Washing station.
The Wate washing station primarily was established to process coffee from high altitude mountain of West Guji.
The farmers of this coffee are mainly smallholders farmer which focus on the cultivation of coffee on a small scale. Mainly, the farmers are from the village of Wate Musaka and Wate Gogoka. This area are a very high altitude region, on average the coffee planted here are at an altitude of 2200 masl and nearere to west if Wate Musaka, the altitude reach 2400 masl.
After 2 years of establishing the processing station, the coffee was selected in the #5 position of the National Winner of the 2021 Ethiopian COE.
At this extreme heights, only Kurume variety are able to flourish and produce quality cherry. Cherry here are usually picked on a later stage of the Ethiopian harvest as the cherry mature a lot more slower. Prior to roasting the coffee we notice that the size of the coffee beans are a lot smaller in size.
About Hambella Wamena
Hambela Wamena is a woreda within Guji Zone. The Guji Zone lies approximately 300 to 400 km south of Addis Ababa in the Oromia Region. In 2002, Guji itself detached from Yirgacheffe, which had previously been folded in with the Sidamo name. The Guji region takes its name from the Oromo people, a tribe that has farmed coffee on the land for generations.
About anaerobic process
This coffee is processed as anaerobic natural. It is not a common process in Ethiopia, however for smaller lots, processor usually experiment with wide variety of processing technique. This microlot coffee first is picked and sorted at the washing station. The selected cherry are mainly the overripe cherries. The over ripe cherries is selected due to the amount of sugar available in the cherry. Then the selected cherries is placed inside a sealed bag. The sealed bag is then placed on the raised bed and dried while it is sealed. This procedure is only for the first six days. After the six days, the fermented cherries is then remove from the bag and placed on the raised beds. The drying process usually take up to 18 days. Once reached the targeted moisture level, it is hulled immediately to prevent any further fermentation. After hulling, the coffeee bean is sent to Addis Ababa to be mechanically sorted.
Bean Spec
- Origin: Ethiopia
- Region: Hambela Wamena, West Guji
- Producer: Wate processing station
- Altitude: 2200-2400m
- Cultivar: Kurume
- Processing: anaerobic natural
- Sourcing: Pebble Coffee