We Nitrogen Flush all of our coffee when bagging for an inert shelf stable environment by locking freshness inside for up to 6 weeks prior to opening
 
Mill: Chalbessa Washing Station
Region: Chalbessa, Worka, Yirgacheffe, Gedeo
Varietal: Kurume, 74110, 74112, 74165
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1900 - 2300 masl
 
Worka is a famed coffee producing area of Yirgacheffe which lies inside Ethiopia's Gedeo zone. Coffee here is grown by a collection of small holder farmers who farm their coffee at high altitudes ranging from 1900 through to 2300 masl. Coffees from Yirgacheffe and Worka in particular are known for incredible stone fruit and citrus-forward acidity, delicate florals, and incredible sweetness - this years lot is no exception. 
 
Smallholder coffee farmers in the respective villages and the surroundings deliver handpicked coffee cherries directly to the Chalbessa  station owned by Melkalti Trading PLC. Once the farmers deliver the coffees, further quality improvement practice is carried out through manual labor to sort out under ripe, overripe and insect/pest damaged cherries. For both processing types, only well-ripen red cherries remain for further processing activities.
 
Hand-picked coffee cherries are taken directly from farm to coffee processing sites for sorting out under ripe, overripe and insect/pest damaged cherries. Only well ripen red cherries remain for pulping using a locally made washed coffee processing machine called Agard. Immediately after pulping, coffee is soaked under water for 48 hours to undergo wet fermentation. During this period, water is changed every 24 hours. This round of fermentation is completed after confirming that the mucilage is completely removed through washing the parchment coffee using clean water. Lastly, clean parchment coffee is transferred to a soaking tank and stays there under water briefly (2-4 hours). The coffee is then transferred to a skin drying stage where stirring the parchment coffee around is carried out by hand under shade. This process usually lasts from 2-4 hours in the morning.
Skin drying is immediately followed by the final main drying stage. In this final phase, parchment coffee is transferred on to a raised drying bed where it stays for 10 days till the bean moisture level reaches 10.0-10.5%. In the meantime, to maintain uniform drying among beans, the parchment coffee is set under the sun for two hours in the morning between 8:00 and 10:00 AM.
 
To prevent the coffee from the hottest hours of the day, the parchment coffee is covered with nylon mesh and plastic between 11:00AM and 3:00 PM. In the afternoon, the parchment coffee is uncovered for another two hours between 3:00 PM-5:00 PM. This is a routine practice carried out throughout the main parchment coffee drying period.