Ethiopia Organic Geruke Cooperative

Geruke washing station is located in the village of Gube Muleta, in Ethiopia's Western Jimma Zone. The coffees of Western Ethiopia are quite distinct from Southern regions, like Yirga Cheffe and Guji. For one, there are strong cooperative unions in the West, with formalized efforts toward farmer outreach, often including certification programs like Fair Trade and Organic. But the flavors we associate with washed coffees from the region are also distinct, like stone fruit, honey, and tea. Geruke is part of the Jimma Farmers Cooperative Union, which currently has more than 20 coffee coops operating in this Zone. Unlike many of the cooperative stations that take deliveries directly from farmers, it seems most of the coffee cherry is collected at auxiliary sites in the surrounding villages, and then trucked down to Geruke mill for processing. The station itself sits at 2015 meters above sea level, and it seems that many farmers are growing JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) varieties like 74112. They process coffee using a disc pulper ("Agard" is the make), removing the cherry and most of the mucilage. The rest is removed with a 36 hour fermentation, and then the coffee is dried on raised African beds for roughly 10 to 12 days.