We visited Mr. Gelo’s small site on our last day in Guji, in January 2025, going back from some other farm visits. Gemechu, who is our exporting partner, wanted to show us this tiny drying area which turned out to be Gelo’s small garden just next to his house. Nearby, he owns only a couple of hectares of land where he grows a 74158 (wolega) single varietal.
Gelo’s annual production is around 10-15 tons of fresh cherry, which results in around 20 bags of exportable green, half of which we bought this season. Gelo is also a respected member of the local community as a former administrator of the area as well as for his leadership role within a local church congregation.
A part of his lot was covered by a tarpaulin which made sense given the time of day and the harsh sunlight. However, the cherries were very fresh, picked just a few days earlier, still with significant amounts of moisture, sugars and other pulpy organic matter that had already begun to ferment quite dynamically. The cover admittedly protected the coffee from direct sunlight, yet at the same time it helped to create a warm and moist environment, hence a very specific, boozy and fruity aroma was already coming out of the raised tarp.
Curious by what may come out of it, we took a solid sample that we blended from several bags of coffee already dried in the same way from Gelo’s warehouse and two days later, back in Addis, tasted a superbly juicy and vibrant cup, full of deep notes of berries and citrus, resembling a super clean washed, rather than a natural coffee that overwent some kind of an extended fermentation!
Mr. Gelo Saloye’s coffee has been, naturally, picked by hand from his wolega trees and delivered for drying at his raised beds, spread out in his backyard. Covered with tarpaulin during the most severe sunlight periods, it was dried for around 30 days before being homogenized in his small warehouse on site, then contracted by us and moved for next stages for export.
