Ethiopia Hunkute, Washed

Ethiopia and Yemen are the birthplaces of coffee. In Ethiopia there are over 1.1 million smallholder coffee farmers, delivering cherries to local washing stations. In the region where coffee is growing, most people dry, roast, and brew their coffee themselves. As a country, Ethiopia consumes over 40% of their production, compared to Kenya where they keep less than 5% of all the coffee produced in the country.

Hunkute have two washing stations (Site 1 and Site 2) both belonging to the Hunkute Sidama Cooperative, which is made up of 2149 members, the Hunkute Cooperative is connected to the Sidama Union. 

Hunkute site 2, started nine years ago, and collects cherries from both the members of the cooperative and surrounding farmers who want to deliver their cherries to the washing station. Most farmers delivering to Hunkute site 2 have about half a hectare to five hectares with an average of 1500 trees per hectare. One tree in Ethiopia is typically producing cherries equal to less than 100 - 200 grams of green coffee.

During the harvest period, from November to January, the farmers collect their coffee cherries every third week. The farmers in the area around Hunkute help each other with the harvest, circulating with the neighboring farms. Many of the farmers also work at the washing stations during harvest.

Hunkute cooperative belongs to Sidamo Union, which now has its own dry mill where the coffee is milled and graded before putting into protective bags and loaded on the containers.

Since Sidama is such a Mecca in coffee, the market is competitive for the cooperatives in the region. This is one of the reasons Hunkute is paying the farmers upfront daily during harvest (November-January) unless the farmer prefers to be paid differently. All of the volumes and coffee cherry prices are displayed. They also have a second payment based on the selling price which is being paid to the farmers very latest by August, which is a great difference compared to how late we've seen some farmers being paid when visiting different cooperatives in Ethiopia. In the Sidama Union, about 70% of the payment is going back to the farmers and the rest is for investments at the washing stations and the cooperative. 

Hunkute, are a fully organic certified co-op. Being certified Organic and with UTZ and Fair Trade, helps the washing station to keep documents and reports of payments and data logging of the production.

This is a light roast coffee, and I'm really happy with how its performing as filter now, but it can also shine as an espresso, with berry acidity and floral notes that are classic flavours of a washed Ethiopian

Espresso 19:42g 28s
Filter 24:400g 3:30s

We’re still working out the peak rest time on our coffees, with a stable and delicious balance seeming to come in around 18days onwards