Ethiopia Yukro

Yukro is a washing station in Wanja Kersa, a community in the Agaro region of western Ethiopia's Jimma zone. As recently as 2009, Agaro's coffee flowed into the market undifferentiated and undervalued; new washing stations and a few committed buyers changed that, and the region has been a benchmark ever since. We've roasted Yukro since Parlor's earliest days.

Nearly six hundred smallholders deliver cherry from plots of a hectare or two, planted with landrace coffee varieties under false banana shade trees at 1,800 to 2,200 meters. Processing is meticulous: cherry is mechanically depulped, the seeds soaked overnight until perfectly clean, then dried on raised beds for a week with frequent turning. Agaro coffees are also unusually long-lived, continuing to open and deepen for months after arrival.

This season's harvest is a standout even for Yukro: a tea-like body carrying rose water and orange blossom, anchored by raw honey, all enlivened by ripe peach on the nose. It reminds us why we keep coming back.