Ethiopia, Layo Teraga, Natural 74110
Tastes Like: 
Peach Green Tea, Apple Candy, Cara Cara Orange, Cane Sugar
Origin: Guji, Ethiopia
Variety: 74110
Producer: Layo Teraga
Elevation: 2250 masl
Process: Natural
Layo Teraga is a cooperative of 1,841 smallholders in northern Uraga, in the Guji zone of Oromia, founded in 1976 because Guji coffee had no route to the buyers who already knew Gedeo and Sidama and sold for less for decades on account of it. Members grow it in gardens around their homes, semi-forested plots that reach 2,342 meters, and this lot was picked at 2,250 masl.
Peach green tea opens the cup, soft stone fruit held inside something light and tannic. Apple candy follows, a sweetness concentrated far enough to turn confectionary, and it gives the cup most of its body. Cara cara orange carries the middle, a round citrus with a pink note sitting under the juice. Cane sugar settles into the finish, plain and clean, and it holds the other three in place. The texture is delicate and the cup stays bright from the first sip to the last. This is a natural built on tea and citrus.
74110 is a named selection with a documented origin. The Jimma Agricultural Research Center chose it in 1974 from wild mother trees near Bishari village, in the forests of western Ethiopia, breeding for resistance to coffee rust disease. The trees are compact, they carry small cherries, and they hold the floral, tea-like character that runs through this cup. At 2,250 meters, in gardens shaded by the trees the members left standing, nights are cold and the cherries ripen slowly.
Members carry ripe cherry to the cooperative's washing station, where it is floated to pull out anything underripe or damaged and sorted by hand. Whole cherry goes onto raised beds in thin layers, high enough off the ground for air to move underneath, and it is turned by hand through the day so the fruit dries evenly and heat is managed effectively. The cherry is covered through the hottest hours and again overnight. Drying in the cherry keeps the sugars in contact with the seed for the whole of the process.