Farms & Supplies

Zablon Coffee has an awesome profundity to the Ethiopian Coffee Beans that intensify beyond commodity that’s our National Pride and natural endowment. We gratefully share this sentiment and natural at the side of your desired green coffee beans. Arabica coffee is native to the region, occurring naturally in the remnant moist natural forests. We retain much of its original vegetation. The areas are gently undulating terrain with elevations between 1,600m to 2,300m.

We started the operations of the coffee production and exporting from its seedlings and innovatively and carefully managed each step from farm to the cup and preparing beans that speak to the conception we have for our esteemed clients whose deserve something original, finest quality and organic and abundance sources.

Zablon coffee targets the most praised coffee plantation sites and unexploited forest coffees. Our mantra would like to maintain the nature endowments with care and utilize the best cupping value of each coffee as it grows by proactively and creatively work on the processing methods that is beyond the cultivation.

Zablon coffee has established numbers of washing stations that are able to carry out both wet and dry processing with huge capacity of productions. It is also devised to invest on the farm that ranges 3000ha that comprises the semi forest farm. It is underway contracted with Sidamo (Dale and Chiro site) and Illubabure sites and its underway at major areas such as Guji, Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Limmu, Lekempti, Jimma and Harer.

Beyond farming the Processing coffee has value added to the cupping profile of the Coffee beans. As Zablon, we tend to experiment the journey of this processing on our initiative or based on the client request. This is our strategic approach that we continuously working on numbers of processing methods.

The goal of processing coffee is to separate the bean from the coffee cherry but also preserve the coffee’s profitability. Even if the coffee was picked perfectly ripe and the harvest has gone really well, bad coffee processing can lead to defects which decrease the value of the coffee. Depend on the processing methods, it varies with time, investment and natural resources.

The following are the most commonly used processing methods of the coffee beans.

Also known as the dry process, natural processing is most old school way to process coffee. After picking the coffee cherries from the coffee trees, they are spread out in thin layers to dry in the sun. The drying stations can be a little different depending on the farm or region; some use brick patios, others special raised beds which enable air to flow around the cherries, thus more even drying. To avoid mould, fermentation or rotting, the cherries are turned regularly. Once the cherries are properly dry, the skin and dried fruit flesh are removed mechanically and the green coffee is stored and “rested” before exporting it. The natural process definitely adds flavors to the coffee such as fruitiness and sweetness. It they are commonly noted flavor as blueberry, strawberry, tropical fruits and honey but on the flip side, or expressed as a red wine like flavors when compared to washed coffees there can be also wild, fermented flavors and alcohol-like note regardless of variety and region.

Also known as wet processing method, is the other main way to process coffee. In the washed process all of the fruit flesh is removed mechanically from the coffee bean before the beans are dried. Removing of the fruit flesh is done with a machine called de-pulper. After depulping the beans are put to a water tank where fermentation process will remove the remainder of the fruit flesh. The amount of time that the fermentation requires depends on the climate and altitude. In hotter regions the fermentation will take less time and vice versa. Usually the fermentation requires 24-72 hours and if the coffee beans are fermented for too long, it will have negative effect on the flavor of the coffee. After the fermentation is ready, the coffee beans are washed to remove any leftover flesh and then it is ready to be dried. Drying in the washed process is done similarly as in natural process so in brick patios or raised beds. To ensure even drying the beans are turned regularly as in natural processing. The beans can be also mechanically dried, especially in regions where there isn’t enough sunshine or excess humidity.

The washed process leads to bright and acidic flavors in the cup. It’s commonly highly appreciated among roasters and baristas due to increased complexity and cleaner cup profiles. It is expressed as a white wine like flavors when compared to natural coffees.

Depends on the fermentation period, it is extracted to new processing type semi processed Coffee. We use to tailored such processing methods in general.

In addition to the aforementioned methods, we have started to experiment with new coffee processing methods such as anaerobic fermentation.

The cherries are mechanically depulped but the depulping machines are set to leave a specific amount of flesh on the beans. After depulping the beans go straight to the drying tables or patios to dry. As there is less flesh surrounding the beans, the risk of over-fermentation is lower than in natural process but the overall sweetness and body in the cup are increased by the sugars in the remaining flesh. When well done, honey processed coffee have positive attributes from washed and natural coffees; sweetness of naturals and brightness of washed.

Honey processed coffee are quite often referred with colors; black, red, yellow and white honey. The color referrers to the amount of fruit flesh that is left on the bean after depulping. Black honeys, that are also black in color have the most flesh left on the bean and white honeys the are left only a bit of flesh. This of course has an effect on the flavor of the coffee; black honeys are like naturals and white honeys like washed coffees. This can be deprived into pulped natural process which uses a bit more water and strips the beans fully during depulping.

Anaerobic fermentation is one of the newest methods to process coffee and has gotten popularity especially among really high-end coffee such as competition coffees. Anaerobic process is similar to washed process but the fermentation is done in fully sealed and oxygen deprived tanks. The methods is still quite experimental but anaerobic processed coffees have often wild, unexpected and complex flavors.

This method is similar to the anaerobic and it has been stolen from the winemaking world. The biggest difference to anaerobic process is that the cherries are fermented as whole and the process breaks down the cell walls of the fruit flesh from inside out. All the crazy flavors from the fruit flesh is soaked into the beans during the fermentation and carbonic maceration yields extremely crazy and incredible flavors such as red wine, whisky, banana and bubblegum to the cup.

Sounds something not related to coffee but in fact it means “wet hulled” in Indonesian language. As you might then expect, it is only common in Indonesia. Giling basah is similar process to washed process but the beans are dried to only 30-35% moisture content (11-12 % in washed process). After initial drying the parchment is removed from the beans and the “naked” beans are then dried again until they are dry enough to be stored. Giling basah yields earthy flavors such as wood, mustiness, and spice. Few are highly appreciated among coffee professionals.

Zablon embraces its corporate social responsibility with compassion and always put itself at the forefront to support the community. It is undermentioned on our every project with strong conviction changing the lives and life styles of the farmers through building local road construction, nursery establishment and free distribution of best coffee seedling & fruits seedlings, clean water and electric power supplies, school building and financial support and life empowerment trainings.