Fresh crop Werka is back!

This lot is made up of coffees grown in the kebele (local village) of Werka (pronounced “wer-kah”), which is located in the Nensebo woreda (administrative district), in Ethiopia’s West Arsi Zone. The coffee was processed using the natural method at Gara Kone washing station, one of twenty owned and managed by Testi Coffee, a family-owned company founded by Mr Faysel A. Yonis.

This coffee is made up of local landrace varieties Kurume and Wolisho.

For many years, most Ethiopian coffees have been described as being a mix of cultivated and wild varieties, referred to as “heirloom varieties.” This is a term that is all-encompassing and used by many actors in the coffee industry to generally categorise Ethiopian coffee varieties that are from native forest origins. Whilst “heirloom” describes many of the varieties found in Ethiopia, it is also a bit simplistic and does not acknowledge the varieties that are already locally recognised and purposely cultivated, or those that have been specifically developed and widely distributed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC).