Ethiopia Zelelu Ararso Washed

Zelelu Ararso is one of the farmers within the co-op of 255 farmers in wild, remote Halo Bariti. He sorted his crop to a grade 1 status and kept it separated from the rest of the coffee and sold it at a premium. He's 59 years old and an expert at what he does.

It is being marketed and officially labeled as a Yirgacheffe, but its really too far south to be part of Yirgacheffe. Halo Bariti is a new fair trade organic co-op that has only been in existence since 2012. The members of the co-op own their own land and can boast that they have the highest altitude to work with in the entire country of Ethiopia (4800 to 6800 feet above sea level). It's an area where wild, heirloom coffee grows naturally, and even though this co-op is cultivating the coffee plants for commercial sale, they still grow heirloom varietals native to their land, some of which aren't grown anywhere else in the world.

Being a washed coffee, you would expect the fruit to be more subdued, but it actually has a really creamy, chocolate, floral, berry, and lemon flavor, with a little bit of orange and pear -- we roast it lightly, roughly 30 seconds after the 1st cracks have stopped is our sweet spot.  Erring too light will make it sour.  Erring too dark will make it bitter. Overall clarity of flavor, intense sweet vanilla aroma. Washed Ethiopia coffees are a lot easier and more consistent to roast than natural processed.

US Arrival September 2023