"Ground to a strong peachy, honeyed pineapple, lychee, and floral aroma. Sipping it, you'll experience the sweet lychee, peach, and floral notes, followed by the sweet flavor of honeyed pineapple. Next comes grape gum, rosehip tea, and a vibrant blend of peach, honeyed pineapple, lychee, and floral tones, creating a full-bodied and powerful taste."

Bochessa is built around a centralized washing station model, with cherries delivered by smallholder producers from the surrounding highland communities of Sidama. The station is operated within Tracon Trading PLC’s Ethiopian coffee network, which manages selection, drying, storage, and export preparation under structured quality control. Tracon’s role is especially important in Ethiopia, where many producers work with very small plots and rely on washing stations for market access, lot separation, and post-harvest discipline. This 2026 selection was presented as a Taste of Harvest #1 Natural lot, linking the coffee to AFCA’s regional quality platform for identifying standout African coffees. The lot reflects a system where many small farms contribute ripe cherry, while the station provides the consistency needed for export-level separation.

Bochessa is located in the Arbegona woreda of Sidama, one of southern Ethiopia’s high-elevation coffee areas. The coffee is grown between approximately 2,100 and 2,300 metres above sea level, where cooler temperatures slow cherry maturation and support concentrated sugar development. The area is shaped by fertile volcanic soils, pronounced day-night temperature shifts, and the highland climate associated with northern Sidama. These conditions help produce coffees with a bright structural profile and layered aromatic expression. In this lot, the terroir provides the foundation for a natural process that remains clean, lifted, and clearly connected to its origin.

The variety for this selection is 74158, one of Ethiopia’s 74-series cultivars developed through the Jimma Agricultural Research Center. These selections were created from Ethiopian genetic material with attention to agronomic stability, productivity, and resistance to common coffee diseases. 74158 is valued for retaining the character of Ethiopian coffee while offering producers a more resilient plant in highland conditions. In the cup, varieties from this group are often associated with floral structure, citrus clarity, and refined fruit expression when processed carefully.

For this Natural process, ripe cherries are first harvested and sorted to remove underripe, overripe, and defective fruit. The selected cherries are then placed on raised African beds, where they dry slowly with the fruit intact around the seed. During drying, the cherries are turned regularly to encourage even moisture reduction and to limit uncontrolled fermentation or mold development. The process continues until the coffee reaches stable export moisture, with this lot recorded at approximately 9.8% moisture and high physical density. After drying, the coffee is rested, prepared, and graded as G1 before final export selection.

This Bochessa Natural is shaped by the meeting of high-altitude Sidama terroir, 74158 genetics, and careful station-level natural processing. The coffee’s character comes from whole-cherry drying rather than heavy fermentation intervention, allowing fruit intensity to develop while preserving clarity. The Taste of Harvest recognition gives the lot a clear quality context, but its foundation remains the work of smallholder cherry selection and disciplined drying at station level. The result is a coffee that presents Bochessa through a clean natural style, with sweetness, aromatic lift, and highland structure held in balance.

Variety : 74158
Altitude : 2,000–2,300 MASL
Process : Natural
Origin : Bochessa, Arbegona