Aricha Adorsi

Aricha Adorsi Washed — Yirgacheffe
Aricha, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia — Washed Process

Ethiopia is where coffee comes from. Yirgacheffe is where washed Ethiopian coffee became a benchmark for the rest of the world. Aricha, the village at the heart of this lot, sits at the top of that already exceptional region.

The Adorsi washing station was established in 2001 and sat neglected for years before Faysel Yonis and his family saw what it could be. In 2018 they acquired it — the first Yirgacheffe station in what would become one of the most respected specialty networks in Ethiopia. Faysel grew up in Harar, where his father had a coffee farm. He started trading cherry in high school, ten and twenty kilos at a time, selling to exporters in his region. He founded Testi — the word means happiness in the Harari language — in 2009, and has since built it into 28 washing stations across Guji, West Arsi, Sidama, and Yirgacheffe. Testi has placed at the Cup of Excellence and runs Project Direct, a social program that has funded four primary schools and the first-ever high school in Hamasho, along with water wells and community infrastructure across the farming regions they work in.

At Adorsi, 800 independent smallholder outgrowers deliver cherry daily from farms averaging 1,900 to 2,000 meters above sea level across ten surrounding kebeles. The station sits at 1,950 meters, alongside the Wogida River, where Aricha's cool climate slows drying on the raised beds and builds the complexity that faster drying cannot produce. Cherries are floated to remove underripes, pulped on traditional disc pulpers, fermented for 24 to 36 hours in clean water, thoroughly washed, then dried slowly on raised beds for 10 to 12 days.

What ends up in the cup: lemongrass and green apple up front - precise, clean, and bright - with a black tea quality on the finish that lingers well after the sip.