Ethiopia | Ilkito

Nectarine | Earl Grey | Brown Sugar

Region | Yirgacheffe, Gedeo Zone
Altitude | 2000-2100 MASL
Process | Washed
Variety | Kumie, Diga, Wilsho

It's always a joy to welcome an old favourite, the washed Yirgacheffe, back on the menu after an absence. This year's offering is from the Ilkito washing station and it has all that tea-like delicacy and soft florals we associate with this celebrated region.

The Ilkito station, built in 2016, is located in the highlands of Yirgacheffe and this characteristically dense and clean coffee is collected from a 2 hectare area near the station. Coffee is grown in the shade of the trees Cordia Africana, Acacia and Ensete Ventricosum - this helps the coffee mature more slowly and thus pack in more flavour but it is increasingly highlighted for its positive biodiversity impact on the industry. Smallholders such as Ilkito's contributors can rarely find a way to fulfil the often costly requirements of environmental certification standards but nonetheless form a telling contrast with the vast deforesting estates of many other coffee origins, particularly those found in South America.

1200 smallholder farmers contribute to this coffee and their coffee is fermented for 36-48 hours as part of the washed process. Kumie, Diga, Wilsho are local names for some of Ethiopia's famously sundry collection of wild varieties, a nod to a country whose natural varietal development has parented all the world's great cultivated coffees.

Sit back, relax and enjoy all the flavour.