Description
Ajere is a municipality located near the center of the coveted Gedeo Zone—the narrow section of highland plateau dense with savvy farmers and fiercely competitive processors whose coffee is known the world over as “Yirgacheffe”, after the zone’s most famous district. The Gedeo Zone is named for the Gedeo people who are indigenous to this area. As a coffee terroir, Gedeo, or “Yirgacheffe”, has for decades been considered a benchmark for beauty and complexity in arabica coffee. It’s known for being beguilingly ornate and jasmine-like when fully washed, and seductively punchy and sweet when sundried, and hardly requires an introduction.
Tasting Notes:
A very cool washed Ethiopian from one of the more renowned mills. This Ethiopian cup is a super clean; an awesome example of a high end washed processed Ethiopian. Jasmine aromatics with wild more lemon/tropical fruit acidity, balanced with a chocolaty spiced undertone. Lighter roasts will have some citric acidity and a nice more tropical fruity factor balanced with a faint tea like chocolaty undertone. Medium roasts really mellow out the acidity and reduce the fruit tone but create a bit more body and a much more recognizable chocolaty factor. A very smooth, balanced cup with exotic highlights. Darker roast burn out all the fruity and acidic notes, gets a little smoky roasty with strong bakers chocolate tones.
Roasting Notes:
Light to dark it is a tasty cup. Bright, floral and fruity with tea like attributes at the light roasts. Very bakers chocolaty and edgy with some smoky notes at the darker roasts. In between is where you get the nice chocolate versus tropical fruit note which most will prefer.
More Info:
Ajere is in the district of Yirga Chefe itself. Private processors here will often attempt to collaborate with select communities to keep the coffee traceable and the terroir focused. In this case, the washing station, managed by Birhanemeskel Abera is called, simply, “Ajere”. Birhanemeskel works directly with 857 farmers from the Ajere community. Farmland is typically divided between coffee, subsistence crops for the families, and items for the regional markets such as livestock or enset, a fruit-less relative of the banana tree whose pulp is fermented and then toasted as a staple food.
The coffees themselves, jasmine-like and sweetly spiced, express their corner of Gedeo extremely well. Washed coffees are fermented underwater with regular water replenishments for 36 to 48 hours, and then sundried on raised beds for 12 to 15 days. During drying the parchment coffee is often covered during the midday sun, which at this altitude is often searingly hot during harvest and can crack the brittle parchment if exposed for even an hour too long.
Private processors like Ajere are admirable businesses. It’s tough being a private processor in Gedeo, as the sheer density of competition among washing stations tends to push cherry prices as high as double throughout a single harvest, and privates often don’t have the backing of a larger union to secure financing, regulate cherry prices, or bring export costs down with centralized milling and marketing. Successful private washing stations like Ajere, then, need to be not only standout quality processors to stay afloat; they must also be excellent business developers with connections and community standing, in order to continue winning the business of farmers and buyers alike, and stay afloat for the long term.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.