DUROMINA

APRICOT, PEACH, ORANGE MARMALADE

DUROMINA is a crisp and syrupy coffee from the Duromina Cooperative near the town of Agaro inside the Jimma zone of western Ethiopia. I found this coffee to be exhibit a crisp stone fruit (fruits with a pit!) like quality while maintaining a syrupy texture throughout. Expect that peachy note to stand out, and an orange jam sweetness to linger. 

PRODUCER
"Duromina" translates from the Afan Oromo language roughly into english as "blessing to succeed" or "to become wealthy". Duromina was formed in 2010 by 114 farmers with the goal of turning around a failing coffee farming economy in their area due to coffee berry disease. By means of support through a non-profit TechnoServe, the cooperative removed the diseased trees and replaced them with disease resistant varieties. They also set a up a washing station, which allows farmers to capture the next stage of the value chain by processing their coffee cherries into more travel stable coffee seeds. These infrastructural improvements along with a commitment to quality practices has transformed the area's coffee production from nearly extinct to one of the best in Western Ethiopia

VARIETY/CULTIVAR
Ethiopia and the Boma Plateau of Sudan are the origin of Coffee Arabica. Coffee Arabica has been growing natively in Ethiopian forests for hundreds of thousands of years. This has resulted in coffee plants having much higher genetic diversity relative to the rest of the coffee growing countries, all of which entered into coffee production through foreign colonization. This genetic diversity and the native environment in which it has evolved is a big part of why Ethiopian coffees are so expressive and delicious. 

Due to this history, much of the coffee cultivation in Ethiopia is the result of generations of coffee farmers identifying the best local types and using them as "mother trees". These locally selected varieties are commonly called "Heirloom Cultivars" However, through research done by the Jimma Area Coffee Research Station (JARC), there are growing number of identified and selected cultivars. These selections are commonly referred to as "landrace cultivars".

PROCESSING PROTOCOL
Cooperative members deliver coffee cherry to Duromina washing station. Processing at the station follows common methods in Ethiopia. First, cherry is floated in water to remove underripe cherry (underripe cherry is less dense and thus tends to float). After being floated, the cherry is visually inspected to remove damaged cherries and any remaining under or over ripe cherries. It is then mechanically depulped and placed in water for 36 to 72 hours to "ferment". The water is changed 3 times throughout this stage.

Next the seeds are passed through a series of water channels that simultaneously rinses the remaining mucilage off the seeds and sorts the seeds according to density. Once clean the seeds are soaked again for 8 to 12 hours.

Lastly, the seeds need to be dried. There are three stages to this at Duromina. On the first day of drying, they are placed on pre-drying tables to let the excess water from the soak run off. Here, employees will also do some picking and sorting of any defective seeds. After one day the staff will move the seeds to other tables where the seeds will dry for up to 12 days, until they reach the ideal moister content.