Ethiopia Koke Honey

We Taste: Apricot, Black Forest Cake, Amaretto 

Producer: Smallholder Contributors to Koke Washing Station
Region: Yirgacheffe
VARIETY: Kurume, Dega, Wolisho
PROCESS: Honey
Elevation: 1800 Meters

More about the Koke Washing Station:

The Koke washing station is named for the Koke kebele, or town, where it is located in the Yirgacheffe district of the Gedeo Zone. Ally has a long-standing relationship with the family-owned Koke washing station, which was built in 2011 and has seen many improvements since 2015, when the washing station staff began providing guidance to contributing producers regarding steps to increase coffee quality.  We have been providing feedback to Koke and sourcing with them for more than five years, and we look forward to many more years of fruitful partnership.

The Koke station stands on the side of a hill, with coffee grown above and below the station. For the last three years, the Koke station managers have been separating out the higher elevation cherries for Ally, and the quality clearly shows. 96 small scale farmers provided cherries to Koke this harvest most of them multi-generational family farmers.

Honey Processing

The Koke Honey process begins with coffee dried for two days in cherries, as in the Natural Process. Cherries are then depulped and dried on Koke’s 89 raised beds for 18-21 days. The extra time the mucilage is in contact with the beans adds fruity flavors to the cup profile.