Ethiopia Dry Process Guji Buku

The coffee comes from small holder farmers in Kebele (town) Buku Sayisa, Guji Zone, a region of very altitude that ranges from 2100 to 2300 meters above sea level. These lots are made up of coffee from several hundred different farmers, most with only a couple hundred coffee trees or less. The people in this region are known as Guji Oromo, and coffee farming has been a core part of the culture in the highland areas for many years. It's a distinct coffee from Yirga Cheffe, and Sidamo. Geographically, culturally, and in terms of cup flavors, these southern coffees have a different flavor profile while maintaining the same general characteristics; in the case of natural process, fruited, and aromatic. The station is run by Ismael Hassen from Kayon Mountain coffee, a name you might be familiar with from coffees of previous years. They do a fantastic job controlling quality, consistently providing us with some of our top scoring Ethiopian coffees. Sorting out imperfect coffee cherry starts on delivery, and extends all the way to the drying tables. Farmers must hand sort the cherry for defects before it is received. The cherry is then floated in tanks of water to catch any underripe coffee before the processing begins. For dry process coffee, the whole cherries are laid to dry on raised beds for 2-3 weeks, during which workers turn the coffee and continue the process of picking out any undesirable coffee cherry. Buku's beds are built with split bamboo reeds  so they're flat and quite sturdy, then a layer of cloth to allow air to pass through the beds. You see a lot of chicken wire used at other sites, which tends to sag, creating uneven coffee layers.