SIKO WASHED, ETHIOPIA - FILTER COFFEE

Siko – Uraga Guji, Ethiopia

This coffee arrived at our roastery from Siko Washing Station in the Uraga Guji region, where around 500 local farmers bring their harvests for processing. This is a common practice in Ethiopia, and this coffee is composed of this "mixture" of lots.

In the cup, layered flavours: peach, apricot jam, orange marmalade, and floral notes come through clearly. The finish is long and sweet. Overall, an elegant and delicious coffee.

In Ethiopia, cultivation often happens in natural conditions – coffee grows alongside other vegetation – and exact information about varieties isn't always available. This, combined with the fact that coffees are blends from hundreds of small producers, means that Ethiopian coffee lots often carry the name Mixed heirloom or landrace. A single lot may contain 10 or more different varieties. This variability is Ethiopia's hallmark and it creates interesting complexity and diversity of flavours. You'll taste it in this coffee too – the flavours aren't simple, but complex.

Siko Washing Station was founded in 2017. It's small, but thoughtfully run, focused on processing and quality. Many of the farmers manage small plots of less than two hectares, and a washing station like Siko gives them a channel to sell their harvests at better prices. This way of working is common in Ethiopia, where few farmers have large enough farms to produce enough coffee to sell on their own. In the region, coffee plants grow at 2,100–2,250 metres above sea level, where rich soil and consistent sunlight give farmers ideal conditions to grow quality coffee.

The process is meticulous handwork. Coffee cherries are carefully handpicked and sorted. The coffee ferments for 24–72 hours depending on the weather in sealed tanks, then is washed in channels and sorted by density in water – lower-quality beans float to the surface and are removed, leaving denser, higher-quality beans to form their own, Grade A lot. After fermentation, the coffee is soaked for six hours, spread into layers roughly two centimetres high, and dried for around 13 days. Finally, another 2–4 hours of manual sorting.