ETHIOPIA BANKO CHELCHELE

Honey Process is when the coffee processing mill leaves some, but not all, of the coffee cherry in tact when it is laid out to dry. This results in a more fruit-forward, vibrant cup of coffee, and requires more attention to detail during drying.

In 2021, Daniel Mijane of EDN, was having difficulty paying producers for their cherry, and thus exported less coffee that year. This issue was compounded in 2022 by the fact that loan access for the fresh harvest is based on what you exported during the previous year. Falcon Coffees and EDN are working together on a prefinancing strategy that will help enable EDN to bring more of their amazing coffees to more of the world.

Upon visiting the Chelchele and Banko Taratu sites, Falcon says, "the first thing we noticed was how organized everything was. All the beds have numbers and when we asked the site managers what process was on each section, they had a master chart and tags for what was drying on every single bed."

A drought in Southern Ethiopia forced many exporters to process only or mostly natural coffees. Drought damaged trees resulted in lower cup scores when processed with the washed method, and thus lower cherry prices. A natural-processed coffee, however, could still fetch higher prices. When asking Mike Tsehaye, CEO of EDN, how EDN's washed coffees were still so great, Mike said, "you have to be very intentional ... and make sure there is no variation in the process."

EDN's dedication to quality, coupled with Falcon's dedication to supporting such producers, is the sort of effort it requires to produce a cup of coffee such as this!