Ethiopia - Worka - Natural

Coffee specifications
Variety
Indigenous landraces and regional heirloom cultivars

Process
Full natural

Harvest
November - January

Tasting notes
Floral, Honey, Juicy

Elevation
1800 – 2200 masl

Grower
Smallholder farmers organized around the Worka Coffee Farmers Basic Cooperative


Background
Worka is a large municipality in the Gedeb district, the southernmost district of Ethiopia’s
famous Gedeo zone. Nearly all of Gedeb is known for its gifted processing climate and
experienced growers. Washed and natural coffees alike from this area tend to be dense and
fruit-forward, ranging from sparkling clean acidic fruits to jammy or herbal concentrated
sweetness. Worka is one of the oldest and largest individual cooperatives that make up the
storied Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU).
Gedeb and Its Coffee
Gedeo zone is a narrow section of Ethiopia’s southern highland plateau dense with savvy
farmers, a famous terroir, and high competition for cherry. Gedeo as a whole is frequently
referred to as “Yirgacheffe”, after the zone’s most famous central district. Gedeb, however, is a
terroir, history, and community all its own that merits unique designation in our eyes. Coffees
from this district, much closer to Guji zone than the rest of Gedeo, are often the most explosive
cup profiles we see from anywhere in Ethiopia. Naturals tend to have perfume-like volatiles, and
fully washed lots are often sparklingly clean and fruit candy-like in structure.
The Gedeb district is a remote but impressively industrious area for coffee production. Half of its
territory is planted with coffee. The city of Gedeb itself is a is a bustling outpost that links
commerce between the Guji and Gedeo Zones, with an expansive network of processing
stations who buy cherry from across zone borders. The communities surrounding Gedeb reach
some of the highest growing elevations for coffee in the world and are a truly enchanting part of
the landscape.
Worka Cooperative and Processing
Worka was established in 2006, only a few years after YCFCU itself was founded. The
cooperative began with 210 member farmers; today there are over 1,400 farmers spanning
2,500 hectares of coffee production—just under 2 hectares apiece on average, although
occasionally farms can be 10 hectares or more. These are quintessential Gedeo family farms:
small and forested, whose production is often divided between spacious, lofty coffee trees, other
fruits or legumes, and enset, a fruitless cousin of the banana plant whose pulp is packed into
cakes, fermented underground, and then toasted as a staple starch. This common pair of crops
satisfies unique and separate needs: coffee for economic livelihood; and enset for nutrition.
Naturals at the coop are received as fresh picked cherry from member farmers throughout the
day. Cherry is hand-sorted on delivery to remove less dense pickings, and then the ripest, most
dense and consistent portions are moved immediately to raised beds to dry in the sun, a
process that takes typically 21 days. During this time, cherry is continuously rotated to keep
airflow consistent and prevent moisture buildup between the fruit. Drying beds are covered at
night to prevent humidity from settling on the coffee, as well as during the mid-day hours to
prevent sunburn and uneven dehydration. When drying is fully complete, coffee is milled to
remove the dried fruit husks and conditioned in local warehouses, until it is trucked north to
Addis Ababa for final milling and preparation for export.
In the past, the Worka cooperative encapsulated a large share of this area’s farmers. In recent
years, newer cooperatives have been established in more specific communities here, but Worka
remains the largest and most influential of the local union cooperatives.
The Yirgacheffe Union
Worka is one of the primary cooperatives that together make up the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers
Cooperative Union (YCFCU). The Union, first established In 2002, has more than 45,000
individual farmer members and 28 different cooperatives across Gedeo Zone, almost all of
which are Fair Trade certified. (Gedeo, while tiny compared to neighboring Sidama and Guji
zones, is one of Ethiopia’s most densely populated areas after Addis Ababa.) The members of
each primary cooperative elect their own executive committee which makes decisions about
investments like new equipment and tree maintenance, but also creates plans for member
social services, school support, public health, infrastructure, and how to structure payments to
the coop members. YCFCU also appoints professional managers for each primary cooperative
to oversee harvest and processing procedures, who are accountable to the members and the
executive committee.

Grade
Grade 1: Natural (dry processed) and Washed (wet processed) coffees alike in the G1 tier are
top-notch, almost always consisting of the highest quality specialty coffee beans that are
carefully sorted and have an intense aroma and complex taste with a range of flavors, including
fruity acidity, well-balanced body, and complex notes of floral, berry, citrus, and tea-like tones.
The green coffee prep is typically pristine and will easily pass SCA criteria for defect counts.
These coffees always cup well with delicate flavors, bright acidity and medium body, and can
sometimes reach the stratospheric, mythical realm of 90+ points. Expect the iconic floral notes
paired with regionally distinctive and process-driven sweet fruit tones. Royal carries a wide array
of both Grade 1 washed and natural options for the discerning coffee lover.