About this Coffee
We proudly bring this coffee back year after year. Like a plump yellow peach right from the tree, this washed coffee is bursting with stone fruit sweetness. Bright red cherries are balanced with delicate florals of gardenia. Worka is an artistic balance of flavors of heirloom varieties.
This coffee is the combined work of 300 smallholding farmers that are members of the Worka cooperative. The cooperative is located in the Worka kebele in the Gedeb woreda. With coffees coming from as high as 2400 meters, we are not surprised to find a cup with intensely sweet and fruit-forward flavors. To process this coffee, the mucilage is first removed and then sent through a series of channels to get washed. Once the coffee is washed it is dried on raised beds, slowly building the signature light body that we love about washed Ethiopian coffees. With thorough quality control done at the cooperative, the result is a clean and uniform cup.
The Worka Cooperative was created in 2005, and immediately joined the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU). Benefitting over 45,000 smallholder farmers, the YCFCU is committed to supporting a consistent coffee supply from the Gedeo zone. Coffee production makes a large chunk of the income and livelihoods of farmers in Yirgacheffe. YCFCU works with farmers, empowering them to bring their coffees to market year after year. Without the proper resources, coffee production might not be economically sustainable for smallholders, even if their coffees are some of the best in Yirgacheffe. WIthout advocacy for fair pay and market connection, we can’t know it is a high quality coffee if we never get to taste it. We admire the work that YCFCU commits to smallholders in empowering and helping farmers receive fair pay.