Quick Facts
Producer: Hirut Gute, in collaboration with approximately 500 smallholder farmers and exporter SNAP
Country: Ethiopia
Region: Tulise kebele (commuity)
Elevation: 1,950 - 2,300+ m.a.s.l.
Varieties: JARC selections (notably 74110 & 74112) & other Indigenous Landraces.
Harvest: October - January
Process: Natural
Overview
The Tulise kebele (village) is 18 km east of the town of Yirgacheffe. This coffee comes from the washing station in Tulise, owned by Hirut Gute. The Tulise site gets most of its coffee cherries from around 500 farmers around the Tulise village, and a few other adjacent villages.
Hirut is a third-generation coffee producer. Originally, she was only buying and producing natural coffee in the Yirgacheffe area, however in 2022, Hirut set up the Tulise washing station making her one of only a handful of women that own and manage a washing station in all of Ethiopia.
Hirut collaborates with SNAP, an exporter focused on high quality coffees from Gedeo and Guji. SNAP assists with financing, quality control, and processing techniques, ensuring not only that the Tulise site produces washed and natural coffees to the highest standard, but also creates unique microlots for coffee roasters as well.
Flavor Notes
Dried red fruits, Berry, Citrus, Cocoa
The flavors of this selection range from bright berry tones to dried fruits. The cups is balanced with a lemon/citric acidity and a chocolate/cocoa note in the finish as it cools.
Processing Information
Natural
Once coffee is delivered to the Tulise processing site, it is put on raised beds and sorted for ripeness. The ripe coffee cherries are turned throughout the day by hand to ensure even drying. The drying process takes roughly 15-20 depending on weather.
Regional Informaton
Yirgacheffe - Gedeo
Yirgacheffe is famous for putting washed coffee on the map in Ethiopia decades ago. People fell in love with the floral and citric profiles that the washing process brought out in the coffees of Yirgacheffe, and almost instantly this small town became famous.
Southern Ethiopia, and Yirgacheffe in particular can get very confusing when figuring out the geographical areas and names. Yirgacheffe is actually the name of a small town, AND the name of a small wordea (district). Wegida is a kebele (village) located just outside the town of Yirgacheffe.
It is also important to understand that Yirgacheffe is synonymous for coffees coming from a much greater area than just the town or the woreda (district.) Today, Yirgacheffee coffee is mostly from the political boundary area called the Gedeo Zone (named after the Gedeo ethic group), but a very small amount of coffee labeled as Yirgacheffe does comes from the Oromia region that borders the western edge of Gedeo. The Gedeo Zone is broken down into 7 woredas, those are; Dilla, Dilla Zuria, Bule, Wenago, Yirgacheffe, Kochere, and Gedeb.
The Yirgcheffe woreda is in the middle of the Yirgacheffe coffee-producing area/region of Gedeo. The elevation from the town to the east increases dramatically - going from just under 1,900 meters to over 2,300 meters. (With even a few farms with coffee over 2,400.)
Farmers in Yirgacheffe, are very small having on average between 1 and 2 hectares - of which around half of their land is planted with coffee. The farms are often classified as "garden" productions systems, due to their size and the fact that often these owners are growing other substance crops. Most farmers in Gedeo alongside their coffee grow enset, a type of false banana that is used to make the a traditional bread called "cocho".