Ethiopia Ayele Tulu Anaerobic

Ayele Tulu Washing Station is located in the Bona Zuria district of the Sidamo region, 106km from Hawassa, the nearest major city. Bona Zuria borders the Oromia region to the south, Hula to the west, Bursa to the north west, Arbegona to the north and Bensa to the east. Ayele Tulu Washing Station is situated at 2,190 masl, making it one of the highest altitude washing stations in the whole of Ethiopia.

The Ayele Tulu Washing Station was officially founded in 2014, and now has 15 permanent workers and 600 outgrowers over 5 hectares of land. Whilst the washing station has only been around for the past 7 years, the eponymous Mr Ayele Tulu has been working in the coffee industry for more than two decades.

Coffee runs in the family as his eldest son, Tsegab, has also worked in the industry for many years and now owns his own traceable coffee export company, Heleph Coffee Export. Heleph oversees all coffee preparation protocols, from harvest to export, ensuring they deliver the highest quality beans.

Coffee cherries are brought to the washing station by contracted outgrowers. 15% of the cherries are depulped using an Aagaard disc pulper and the other 85% of cherries remain fully intact. The coffee (both the de-pulped beans and the whole cherries) is then fermented for 25-26 hours in grain pro bags and barrel containers at room temperature (usually 19-22 Celsius).

Once fermented the beans are put out to dry on African raised beds with shades, which are designed to ensure proper air circulation and temperature control and so to help the coffee to dry optimally. Whilst drying the beans are regularly raked and sorted to preserve the quality of the coffee. The beans are dried for 4-6 weeks, until the moisture content is reduced to between 11.5% and 12.0%. The dried cherries are then put through hulling machines on the Heleph Coffee site and stored in a local warehouse before being transported to Addis Ababa for export.