The Story of Wate Gogugu
This coffee is from a private coffee washing located in the Wate Gogugu Kebele (neighbourhood) of the Uraga district, in the West Guji zone of Southern Ethiopia.
Over the last few years, Uraga has slowly become the powerhouse of Southern Ethiopia, producing some of the most fragrant and complex coffees of the region. This coffee washing station is owned, operated and managed by Kedir Jabril. If you read about our Hana Asrat coffee from this season, then you’ll recognize the last name Jabril, as that station is owned and operated by Feku Jabril. Well, as it turns out, Kedir is the brother of Feku! It seems that amazing quality coffee runs in family! Their other brother Abdi, also runs a washing station.
Kedir’s washing station is really high in elevation. I mean really high. I’ve taken a lot of altitude measurements on my trips to Ethiopia, and some of the farms delivering to Kedir are the highest altitudes that grow coffee in the whole country. Of course, higher altitude doesn’t always mean better coffee, as it can be too high. But the plants around the area look healthy and produce good yields. The high altitude does help increase bean density and, in the case of this coffee, it produces incredible complexity.
Kedir’s level of consistency is also really impressive, and I can trust that he’s going to deliver top quality each season. One of the key reasons for that quality is that Kedir (like his brothers) manages this washing station himself, as opposed to living further away and delegating the task to someone else.
Kedir and the exporter of this coffee, Snap, have a very close relationship. Their partnership helps ensure quality through the milling and exporting process, which is imperative to the quality being intact once the coffee arrives in Calgary.