Overview
This coffee is comprised of coffee cherry deliveries from small holders around the SNAP Specialty Coffee washing station in Riripa. SNAP is owned by Negusse Debela and his family, who have for the last decade been working to build a model supply chain for coffee.
History
Negusse Debela was known in Ethiopia as a computer guy, running a successful computer and electronics import company. While coffee does not seem like a natural leap, he was inspired on trip to Minnesota in the United States, where at a café he had a truly exceptional experience.
At that moment he realized the potential of coffee in his home country, and upon his return, he got right to work. Negusse started off by touring coffee processing sites throughout southern Ethiopia to understand the farming and processing better. From that initial tour, he was determined to set his company SNAP on a course to be one of the highest quality exporters in Ethiopia.
Negusse has since bought land for SNAP to process coffee themselves, and has also undertaken the management of processing sites in Nensebo, Yirgacheffe, and Guji. In early 2019, SNAP finished the final touches on their own export dry mill, giving them full control of their product and quality. Today, Negusse and his family continue to keep pushing for better supply chain models and execution.
Flavor Notes
Citrus, Tea, Melon, Stone Fruit, Floral
Processing Info
Washed
Farmers brings their cherries to process at the washing station where they are hand-sorted and floated for defects. Once sorted, the coffee is fermented for 48-72 hours, washed, soaked for 5 hours, and dried on raised beds for 8-10 days until they reach a final moisture of 10.5%.
Regional Info
Riripa, Nensebo, West Arsi, Oromia
West Arsi is about 400 kilometers south of Addis Ababa. The Nensebo woreda (district) is home to a collection of smallholder farmers totaling 5,000 hectares of coffee. The average farm size in Nensebo is two hectares and producers here grow a range of selected coffee varieties from the JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) and coffee varieties that are said to have originated from the neighboring forests of the area.
Nensebo has historically been sold as a Sidama coffee, but this woreda is technically a part of the region of West Arsi. While not as well known as some other regions of Ethiopia, Nensebo surprised coffee aficionados by claiming more than one-third of the total Cup of Excellence winners in the inaugural Ethiopia tasting competition in 2020.
The area of Riripa is known for its densely shaded forestry and false banana trees surrounding the hills of the village. It is an ideal area for coffee growing due to the abundance of rainfall throughout most of the year.