Ethiopia — Faysel Abdosh Deri Station Ethiopian Heirloom (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🌸 Floral Bomb • 🍋 Sweet Lemon • 🍊 Mandarin • 🍑 Peach

DETAILS

• Producer: Faysel Abdosh
• Station: Deri — Hambella Womena, Guji
• Region: Guji & Sidama, Ethiopia
• Varietal: Ethiopian Heirloom
• Process: Washed
• Altitude: 2,100–2,350 MASL
• Size: 200g

INTRO

The washed version of the same origin as Mazelab's Hambella Honey — from a station Faysel Abdosh has recently built at Deri in Hambella Womena, Guji, between 2,100 and 2,350 MASL. Same heirloom trees, same careful picking, different processing. Without the mucilage, the cup is cleaner and more aromatic, with less sticky sweetness and more lift. In the cup: floral bomb, sweet lemon, mandarin, and peach.

THE PRODUCER

Faysel Abdosh is one of the more respected private producers working across Guji and Sidama in southern Ethiopia — known for meticulous processing and a growing operation that now includes washing stations in both regions. His Ayla station in Sidama is named after his niece; the Deri station in Hambella Womena, Guji is newer, but the quality coming off it has been some of the best Mazelab have cupped from him. Hundreds of neighbouring smallholders deliver ripe cherry to each site, where carefully managed fermentation and slow drying consistently produce clean, layered, fruit-forward lots.

Ethiopia's extraordinary biodiversity — with thousands of indigenous landrace types growing across the country, many never formally catalogued — means that most coffees are blends of heirloom varieties, each adapted to the exact hillside and altitude where it grows. At 2,100–2,350 MASL in Guji, this genetic diversity expresses itself with the floral, citrus-forward intensity that defines the best high-altitude Ethiopian washed lots.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at Deri involves:

🍒 Hand-picking — Heirloom cherries carefully selected and delivered to the station 🔧 Pulping — Outer skin removed before fermentation 🧪 Fermentation — Beans fermented to break down remaining mucilage 💧 Washing — Thoroughly washed to remove all fermentation residue ☀️ Raised-bed drying — Dried slowly on raised beds to optimal moisture content

The meticulous washing is the defining step — by stripping back all fruit influence and allowing no mucilage to remain during drying, the washed process reveals the intrinsic floral intensity, citrus brightness, and peach sweetness of the Deri heirloom trees in their cleanest and most lifted form — a very different cup from the same place.

THE CUP

A clean, floral, and citrus-forward washed Ethiopian from a new and impressive Guji station — a floral bomb opening, sweet lemon and mandarin brightness through the middle, and a soft peach sweetness in the finish. The same origin as the Hambella Honey, shown a different way: less sweetness, more lift, more aromatic clarity.

Flavour Notes

🌸 Floral Bomb 🍋 Sweet Lemon 🍊 Mandarin 🍑 Peach