GARA

Gara Agena is a high grown site in Karamo, in the Sidama region of southern Ethiopia, where ripe cherry is gathered from smallholder farmers who work small garden plots on the surrounding hillsides. It sits among the higher farms in the area, between 2,235 and 2,350 metres, where cool nights and thin air slow the cherries as they ripen and build up sugar. The naturals here are made the patient way, with careful hand sorting and a slow drying process of around 35 days on raised beds, and that is where their floral aromatics, dried cherry, and honeyed sweetness come from.

74158 is one of the improved varieties developed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center in Ethiopia, released to give farmers a plant that could shrug off coffee berry disease while still cupping beautifully. The number itself tells the story, as the 74 marks the year it was catalogued, back in 1974. Up in the highlands of Sidama it is often grown and sold under the local landrace name Kurume, tended in the traditional garden system alongside food crops. Growers value it for being dependable in the field and expressive in the cup, giving clean, floral coffees with citrus and sweet berry in both washed and natural styles.

The natural process is the oldest way of preparing coffee, dating back to the earliest days of the crop in Ethiopia and Yemen. The whole cherry is dried intact, with the skin, pulp, and sticky mucilage all left on the bean, so as the fruit slowly dries it feeds its sugars and aromas straight into the seed. Getting it right takes patience and constant attention, as the cherries have to be turned regularly on raised beds over many days to dry evenly and avoid faults. Done well, the natural process gives coffees their heavy body, deep berry and jam fruit, and big, wine like sweetness.