Our coffees

Peru Pepe Davila Washed

When Pepe Davila and Celestinda Valdivia got engaged 28 years ago they also decided to give coffee-growing a chance, which in those years was not as common. Neither of them came from coffee-growing families. They had seen in neighbouring communities how well it grew and the market it had. So Pepe asked his brother for a 0.5 hectare of land where they planted their first coffee plants. Years later, Celestinda and Pepe had 6 children who were taught to grow coffee. These days, 4 of their children have their respective families and coffee represents their main source of income for all of them. In addition to coffee, the family also grows cane sugar to produce “yonque”, a strong alcohol that is very popular in the north of the country. They produce 25 “botijas” (approx. 35 litres per “botija”, 875 litres in total!) a year which are sold to neighbouring communities and provinces.
Pepe and Celestinda now have 3 acres of land, where they have planted a mix of Yellow and Red Caturra. This lot is a washed lot. The coffee cherries are handpicked and floated after picking. After pulping the coffee goes through 48 hours of wet fermentation and is then dried in black tents for 18 – 25 days depending on weather conditions.
This coffee is nice and sweet, with flavours of caramel, vanilla and honey.

The Aricha station, in the words of the current manager, was a dump. A neglected, abandoned, and the out-of-business station that did not process a single cherry for years on end. Grass covered the entire terrain and the buildings were in decay. The surrounding smallholders had to deliver their cherries to another washing station further up the road. A far from an ideal situation, since transport goes on foot or by mule. But just a few months before the harvest of 2018, the communities met with a new potential station owner. Faysel Yonis, the founder of coffee exporter Testi Coffee.

Testi owns and/or operates washing stations in Guji, Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Limu – all premier coffee producing regions. They work with smallholder farmers, intending to secure the very best prices for their coffee so that they can pay fair prices for the cherry delivered. They are currently also building a warehouse in Shakiso where they can process natural coffees locally, in the region where the coffee is grown. This keeps more revenue in the communities where the coffees are produced.

Testi’s objective is quality and building long term business relationships. Their washing stations are very well run and they do diligent work through sorting and screening to get clean and quality beans for export. Testi always adheres to the very highest quality standards to prepare and deliver nothing but high-quality beans.

As of 2018, Testi has launched a quality improvement project at each washing stations that they operate. Their PCS (Premium Cherry Selection) Project fully controls all aspects of harvest and processing to ensure that the fantastic natural quality of the coffee is maintained at each step. They are also making the most of the market liberalisation to benefit the small producers that they work with. Social projects, such as building new classrooms for the local school near their Guji processing factory are also important, and with support from their importing partners they hope to do even more in the future. They also currently have a drinking/household water provisioning project underway in Guji, and they plan to extend this to other communities in the future.

The name ‘Testi’ means Happy or Happiness in Harrari language (it is also the name of Faysel’s middle son). Certainly, Testi is bringing happiness to small scale producers and us!

This washed lot from the Aricha station is very layered and complex with lots of floral notes, lemon and peach.