Ethiopia Honey Process Guji Goro

The coffee comes from small holder coffee farmers in the Goro Bedessa Woreda of Hambela Wamena, a high altitude region that tops out at 2100 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 station is run by Ismael Hassen from Kayon Mountain coffee, a name you might be familiar with from coffees of previous years. Last year they agreed to do some small batches of honey process coffee by request, and the results were pretty phenomenal. 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 delivering to the washing station. The cherry is then floated in tanks of water to catch any underripe coffee before the processing begins. For honey process, the coffee is pulped from the cherries but then moved straight to the drying tables, forgoing the fermentation step. This crucial step is what defines the honey process. There's a thin layer of fruit still intact to the parchment, and as it dries, it turns a golden color (or dark red if a lot of fruit is still intact). This lot has a level of acidity and cleanliness on par with the amazing wet process lot we just ran out of, but the body is more silky, and honey processing seems to push a bit more fruit in the cup.