The Farm
The Guji Zone of Oromia in south central Ethiopia is home to 1,841 hard-working families who have gardens filled with coffee trees. As opposed to one large single farm or even a small group of neighboring farms, our new coffee is a collection that spans across all 1,841 backyard lots. The beans are processed together under the umbrella of the Layo Toraga Coffee Producers Cooperative. As a co-op union, they work to buy beans from small individual plots and help get them into the hands of buyers overseas. Though they take a percentage of the profit, Layo Toraga provides an economic opportunity these local families wouldn’t otherwise have.
This coffee is of a variety called 74110, a subvariety of Heirloom. It was grown at a whopping elevation of 2342 MASL, much higher than the average farm. After being picked at home, the beans are brought to a communal washing station where they are pulped and fermented for 45 hours. They are left to dry in the sun for 12 days before finding a new home and becoming part of our new coffee offering at Loyal.
