The Story and Flavor Profile of Gelena Abaya from Yirgacheffe Region

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In Ethiopia's ECX trading system, there is a drawback of being unable to trace product origins. This has led to the market being flooded with some Yirgacheffe coffees that are not actually produced in the town of Yirgacheffe.

According to Ethiopian official recognition, "Yirgacheffe" includes the regions of Wanago, Yirgacheffe, Kochere, and Gelena Abaya. Coffees produced from these areas are all collectively referred to as Yirgacheffe.

Yirgacheffe is further divided into three small sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena Abaya. Because the coffee flavors are very similar to Yirgacheffe, they have been classified within the Yirgacheffe region.

Gelena Abaya is synonymous with coffee produced in the Yirgacheffe region that features rich citrus, lemon notes, and floral characteristics. The processing equipment in this origin is very advanced.

Introduction

Yirgacheffe is located in the Gedeo region of southern Ethiopia. This region governs the relatively well-known areas of Yirgacheffe and Kochere. Because the coffee produced in Yirgacheffe has special flavors with a unique style and is widely loved, it has formed its own category in product classification and has always held a place in the global specialty coffee market.

Yirgacheffe, located in Sidama Province, is itself a small town with three neighboring sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere, and Gelena Abaya. Because the coffee flavors produced are almost identical to Yirgacheffe and on par with it, Gelena Abaya is also classified within the Yirgacheffe region. In November 2009, Ethiopia implemented a new trading and grading system. Besides Yirgacheffe, three additional sub-regions were added: Wenago, Kochere, and Genlena/Abaya, indicating that the flavors of these three regions are extremely delicate and can be further subdivided.

Gelena Abaya is located west of Lake Abaya, while Yirgacheffe is to its east. It is a small sub-region where harvested coffee beans come from local small-scale coffee farmers. It is a collection of 9,000-10,000 numerous individual small coffee farmers. These small farmers have an average coffee cultivation area of about 3.5 hectares, with planting altitudes of approximately 1,700-1,900 meters. The main coffee varieties are a mix of Typica and Heirloom (local native varieties).

This region has five advanced green bean processing plants, so it demonstrates high-level performance in the field of green bean processing. It is praised for its clean sweetness with complex notes of honey and citrus. The main local production model involves small coffee farmers directly delivering each harvest of red cherries to nearby cooperative processing plants for unified processing. The processing plants first screen and grade the red cherry-colored coffee fruits, then use water to remove the less solid ones that float. They collect the sunken red cherry-colored coffee fruits, then place the parchment coffee on racks for natural sun-drying. When the humidity reaches 12% or below, it is directly sent to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) warehouse in Awassa. Cupping grading and quantity are conducted for auction. Usually, sun-processed beans are stored in parchment form until the hulling work is done before export.

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