Ethiopia Aricha Washing Station

Producer Boledu Coffee
Farms Smallholder Farmers around the Aricha Kebele Forest
Washing Station Aricha Washing Station
District Yirgacheffe
Zone Gedeo

Sun Exposure Shade Grown
Farm Size Average size 2 Hectares
Altitude 1,900-2,150m
Latitude 6.171530
Longitude 38.214568

Variety Wolisho, Dega, Kurme
Process Natural
Fermentation Dry
Drying 16-21 days on raised beds

Harvest Year 2025

Flavor Blackcurrant, Apricot, Peach, Lemon
Descriptors Balanced, Juicy Acidity, Underlying florals

About this coffee Perched high on the eastern slopes of the Great Rift Valley is the Aricha Kebele, in the heart of the Gedeo Zone and Yirgacheffe Woreda. Surrounding the Aricha Kebele, where cool mists and light breezes rise from the valley below, is the Aricha Forest, a large natural coffee forest that is renowned for its outstanding shade grown coffees.

Although the Aricha Kebele was historically known for producing excellent coffees, the station fell into disrepair until 2017 when the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority allowed for vertical integration among coffee producers and exporters. As a result, several new washing stations were built in 2018 and 2019 in Aricha, and once again the Aricha Kebele began producing outstanding coffees.

We have been lucky enough to work with Mebrahtu Aynalem directly, one of the founders of Boledu Industrial, who owns and operates the washing station in partnership with Abyote Ageze and local farmers. "We are the 2nd generation of coffee growers and now traders in our families. We decided to build a natural coffee processing site in Aricha to be used by the smallholders living in the region. Roughly 1500 growers use the facility, and we have 220 raised African beds for coffee drying," explains Mebrahtu.

The coffee is grown by local farmers as part of their subsistence farming practices within the Aricha forest. Once the cherries are picked and brought to the washing station, Meb and the team sort the cherries, removing any under or overripe cherries before they are moved to raised drying beds for 16-21 days. During drying, coffee is regularly rotated and sorted, and finally hulled and the green coffee is then sorted by size before export.