An uncommon coffee—a smallholder washed coffee from the Southern highlands of Ethiopia from Bekele Belaychow, processed using a hand-pulper and a protocol devised by Christopher Feran—ripe with stonefruit, citrus acidity and gushing with floral complexity. From Christopher: "6 years after export liberalization, it's still rare to find single-producer, smallholder washed coffees from Southern Ethiopia. Large-scale, privately-owned washing stations dot Sidama, Guji and Yirgacheffe and process lots using cherry collected from hundreds or thousands of farmers each; without access to smaller-scale mills, smallholder-exporters nearly exclusively produce cherry-dried naturals." In December 2023, through my work with Crop to Cup, we bought Bekele, now a perennial supplier of Crop to Cup—as well as Basha Bekele and Mate Matiwos, two other smallholders in Bensa—hand pulpers manufactured by GEM Coffee Equipment, a company owned by the coffee producer whose estate served as our proving grounds for yeast fermentation in Ethiopia in 2018. Because washed coffees in Ethiopia must legally be exported, we guaranteed the purchase of any lot processed using the pulper. This coffee, processed using a protocol I wrote, is a small piece of the resulting lot—the first single-producer, smallholder washed coffee I've ever tasted from Ethiopia, and one that showcases the dazzling potential of these coffees. It is exclusive to just Aviary and one other roaster in the world and presents in the cup with notes of nectarine, pink peppercorn, honeysuckle and bergamot with bright, structured acidity and a black raspberry finish. Read the blog post to put this coffee into context. This is a coffee with limited availability (~30kg) and is only available in 200g boxes. This coffee was roasted May 20, 2024. JARC variety 74158 grown using organic methods at 2250 masl in Kokose, Bensa, Sidama; selectively hand-picked and sorted for ripeness; floated; pulped using a GEM 1-disc hand-pulper into plastic drums; floated; fermented under clean water in shade for 48 hours, mixing every twelve hours; agitated to loosen mucilage; drained and dried on raised beds under shade for 25 days.