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Riripa Washed - Oromia, Ethiopia

Quick Facts

Producer: Smallholders in the Riripa area; Haji Betro wet mill

Region: Oromia

Zone: West Arsi

Woreda (District): Nensebo

Area: Riripa

Elevation: 1,900 - 2,100+ m.a.s.l.

Variety: 1974-1975 JARC Selections & Local Landraces

Harvest: November- January

Process: Washed

Overview

This coffee is comprised of deliveries from 742 smallholders in the Riripa area, and is sourced through a vertical integration agreement between SNAP Specialty Coffee and Haji Betro. As a longtime associate of SNAP, Betro's wet mill was completed in 2019 and a partnership was established.

History

Negusse Debela has not been in the coffee industry long. He is known in Ethiopia as a computer guy, running a successful computer part 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 pour-over.

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.

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

Located in larger region of 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.

Credits:

SNAP coffee