The Konga Wete Webanchi washing station is a great example of specialty coffee production coming together and supporting the local community. The station is built next to a school near the town of Wete, and both farmers and coffee exporters work closely with the teachers and staff to provide the support they need to educate local children. As a result, we can improve quality of life while simultaneously improving quality of coffee at the washing station. Now, isn’t that what specialty coffee should be all about!

Processing Details
o Coffees grow in small-holder farmers’ backyards (known as ‘garden coffee’) in the Yirgacheffe region
o Cherries are harvested from October – January and taken to the washing station where small-holder lots are combined
o Coffee is hand sorted to remove under- and over-ripe cherries and select cherries
o Cherries are shade-dried on raised beds in thick piles and regularly turned over to control fermentation for the first 3-5 days
o Cherries are then thinned out during the day but piled up again inside plastic ‘cocoons’ at night for 5-8 days
o Finally, cherries are spread in thick layers on beds with frequent moving for 10-15 days until moisture reaches 10-12%
o Dried beans are then stored in the dried cherry pod for protection and to maximise fruit flavours until milling and export preparation
o Further quality control and sorting continues during milling. As a minimum they do a triple-pass through a colour sorter and a triple-pass through hand sorting tables to improve overall quality
o Koki means peach in Amheric