Sharbo Maro

This coffee comes from an individual producer, Sharbo Maro, located near the Mokonisa village of Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. Sharbo Maro was born into a coffee-farming family. At 80 years old, he’s the oldest farmer in the Mokonisa village, and is in the process of handing his farm over to his eldest son, Daniel.

Sharbo’s farm spans some seven hectares, making it considerably larger than most farms in the region. Since inheriting the land, Sharbo has continued to reinvest and purchase more growing space, slowly increasing the area under coffee production. Today, the farm produces nearly 9,000 kg of export-ready coffee.

Like most farms in Ethiopia, there’s a wide range of indigenous varieties of coffee growing, however Sharbo has endeavoured to favour improved, cultivated varieties like kurume and the somewhat uninspiringly-named ‘74110’. Sharbo has been working to replace wolisho variety plants with these improved varieties, for better cup quality and yield.

Sharbo's farm employs a meticulous processing method, involving hand-picking cherries at their optimal ripeness and diligently sorting out any that are damaged by insects or are slightly underripe or overripe before the pulping stage. Up until 2015, Sharbo primarily utilised a dry-processing method for their coffee, where cherries were sun-dried before being hulled and shipped out. However, since making a significant investment in wet processing facilities on-site, the farm has enhanced its capability to remove cherry skins and pulp prior to an underwater fermentation process. This is followed by soaking and a final drying phase on raised beds, ensuring a higher quality end product.

This coffee is meticulously crafted with the support of the Jabanto Farmer’s Group, encompassing 87 skilled farmers dedicated to cultivating single farmer lots of outstanding quality. In the past, Sharbo’s coffee would typically be merged into significantly larger batches, overshadowing the meticulous care given to picking and processing. However, by preserving the uniqueness of these coffees, we are able to highlight the additional effort and accordingly, pay a financial premium to the farmers.

This coffee is plush and juicy stone fruit, rounded and mild citrus fruit, and floral aromas.

• Region: Yirgacheffe
• Country: Ethiopia
• Variety: Kurume, 74110, Wolisho Varieties
• Processing: Washed