Landrace - Washed - Tagel Alemayehu

Origin

• 🇪🇹 Ethiopia· Guji

Tasting notes

Character

• Clean
  30

Tastes Like: Tangerine, Raspberries, Yellow Florals Origin: Hambela, Guji, Ethiopia VarietyVariety (cultivar)The botanical subtype of the coffee plant — Gesha, Bourbon, SL28 — analogous to grape varieties in wine. A major driver of cup character alongside origin and process.: Kurume, Dega Producer: Tagel Alemayehu, Olkai Coffee Elevation: 2,350 masl Process: WashedWashed processThe fruit is removed from the seed before drying, usually with fermentation and a water rinse. Tends to give clean, transparent cups where origin character shows clearly. Behind this lot is Tagel Alemayehu, the founder of Olkai Coffee—a producer known locally for moving fast and working efficiently, but also for the kind of humility and warmth that makes people stop to greet him on the road. Coffee has been woven into Tagel’s life from the beginning: he grew up in Bule Hora as the son of a local coffee trader who helped shape the region’s early infrastructure, including building the area’s first washing stationWashing stationA central mill where many smallholder farmers deliver cherry for processing. In Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda the station name (e.g. Idido) often identifies the coffee. and bringing in Ethiopia’s first Pinhalense dry huller. After managing a washing station starting in 2004, Tagel launched Olkai in 2018 as export regulations opened—still very much a family effort, with his wife serving as export manager. Today, Olkai operates around a half-dozen washing stations across Guji, Bule Hora, and Sidama, built on relationships formed through two decades of cherry collection—trust so strong that communities have even sold land to make space for washing-station operations in their own towns. This coffee is sourced through a network of 130 registered outgrowers, reflecting a community-scale effort where smallholderSmallholderA farmer growing coffee on a small family plot — often under two hectares. Most of the world's coffee is grown this way, typically pooled at cooperatives or washing stations. farmers and a deeply rooted local operator share in the work of bringing these coffees to life.