Ethiopia Refisa West Arsi Washed

Among coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia holds near-legendary status not only because it’s the “birthplace” of Arabica coffee, but also because it is different than every other origin in the coffee world. Unlike the vast majority of coffee-growing countries, the plant was not introduced as a cash crop through colonization. Instead, growing, processing, and drinking coffee is part of the everyday way of life, and has been for centuries since the trees were discovered growing wild in forests and eventually cultivated for household use and commercial sale.

The majority of Ethiopia’s farmers are smallholders and sustenance farmers, with less than 1 hectare of land apiece. In many cases, it is more accurate to describe these farms as “coffee gardens” as the trees tend to grow in more of a garden or forest environment than fields of farmland.

This coffee was grown and processed in West Arsi, a high-elevation subtropical zone in the Oromia region of central Ethiopia. Its typical mixture of dark and red fertile soil creates coffees that are very clean and elegant in profile.

The Refisa or Testi West Arsi Washing Station was established in 2010 and serves about 850 smallholder producers in the in the Nensebo Woreda (district) of the West Arsi Zone. The smallholder farmers produce coffee in their high elevation coffee gardens, carefully harvest the ripe cherries by hand, and deliver them to the washing station. There, the cherries are depulped, fermented for 24–48 hours, and washed before being spread out to dry on raised beds for 12–15 days.