We are in love with the craftmanship that comes out of the Ayla station in Bombe village! This natural from that station is no exception. It is one of the juiciest filters we could get our hands on. At the same time it holds its own as an espresso: layered, complex, fruity and with hints of spices. It mixes well with milk and milk alternatives with no sugar.

Origin

This natural lot comes from Ayla washing station in Bombe, Bensa, in the Sidama zone of southern Ethiopia, where smallholders deliver cherry from farms sitting between 1,950 and 2,150 metres and planted mainly to 74110 and 74158 varieties. Ayla works with around 725 farmers in the surrounding Shentawane area.

Process

On arrival at the station, the cherry goes through a presorting stage where the team removes underripe and overripe fruit, along with any visible foreign material, before the coffee is weighed and accepted. The sorted cherry is then immersed in water for flotation so that low-density fruit and defects can be skimmed off; the dense, healthy cherries needed for high-end naturals sink and are kept for processing.

After flotation, selected cherries are spread on raised African beds at around 25 kg per bed, in a layer roughly 5 cm deep. Station staff turn the coffee 5–6 times a day to manage exposure and airflow, reducing the risk of overfermentation and keeping drying as even as possible across the bed. Depending on weather, the cherries take around 15–21 days to reach a target moisture content of 11–12%, at which point the lot is moved to the nearby warehouse for conditioning and storage ahead of milling and export.