Potent and characterful, this espresso balances sweet tropical fruits with flavours of rock oolong, tinned peaches and crème brûlée.

Our third release from Snap Coffee this year, please welcome back a coffee from Riripa in the West Arsi, Ethiopia.

The Farmers

Growing their coffee amidst natural forest and lush vegetation, the 742 smallholder farmers who deliver their coffee to Haji Betro’s wet mill are working completely organically and tending to a mixture of varieties, including Wolisho, Kurume and JARC identified varieties, 74110 and 74112. These varieties, coupled with high altitudes and favourable soil types are great starting blocks for high quality coffee.

Each farmer has only a small amount of land, less than a hectare in many cases, and each coffee tree only yields about 3kg of cherry per season. 

The Washing Station & Their Approach

South-west of the Bale Mountain Forest in Ethiopia’s West Arsi zone the Riripa wet mill is managed by Haji Betro, and was only established in 2019. They use a traditional Agaarde disc pulper to remove the cherry skins before the mucilage covered parchment coffee is fermented under water in tanks for up to 72 hours.

The coffee is then washed and scrubbed whilst being sorted and refined in channels, separating the higher grade of seeds by density. Once clean the parchment is dried on raised beds to a stable moisture content before it is sent to the dry mill to have the parchment removed and is sorted once again by density, colour and size, before it is ready to be bagged up and exported. 

The Exporter

Snap Coffee was established in 2008 by Negusse Debela Weldyes and the group are responsible for the running and operation of several coffee washing stations which feature in our coffee range each year. This year we are working with lots from Riripa, Aricha and Danche. Snap oversee the processing facilities but also take on the task of dispensing agricultural knowledge to their contributing farmers. Steps such as tiling fermentation tanks to enable better cleaning, as well as implementing strict drying protocols, have gone long ways to improving the clarity, cleanliness and longevity of the coffees’ characteristics.

They are committed to recycling waste by-products from coffee processing at each of their stations where they have also built schools and provided them with computing equipment from the other arm of their business which is in electronics. They have improved the roads to streamline access to the washing stations and have built health clinics to provide access to better healthcare for their contributing farmers as well. Lots from the most recent harvest have been dry milled at Snap’s own processing and warehousing facility. This has afforded the group even more control over the final exportable productthat we get to work with, leading to improved consistency and uniformity. 

We spent several days cupping through lots at Snap Plaza in Addis Ababa in February, and were able to connect with Negusse and his son Amanuel who has taken on an operational role at Snap Coffee. Later in the year Amanuel came to visit us in our roastery and we were able to show him all of processes we undertake to ensure we handle Snap’s, and other producers’, coffees with respect and care