Guji Siko Uraga Natural Grade 1

Guji · Uraga · Natural Grade 1 2,100–2,250 MASL · Heirloom Varieties · Siko Washing Station

Siko washing station sits high in Uraga, Guji — an area that has quietly earned its place among Ethiopia's most compelling high-altitude growing regions. Founded in 2017 and perched between 2,100 and 2,250 metres above sea level, the station sources from around 500 smallholder farmers, each working modest plots of half to two hectares across soils that are deep red, iron-rich, and genuinely fertile.

At this elevation, the growing conditions do most of the work. Thin air, intense equatorial sun, and cold nights extend the time cherries spend on the tree, concentrating sugars and allowing flavour compounds to develop slowly. The heirloom varieties planted here — Ethiopia's diverse, regionally specific landrace cultivars — remain largely unimproved and carry a genetic distinctiveness that domesticated commercial varieties can't replicate.

Harvest runs November to December. For this natural lot, freshly picked red cherries are floated to remove anything underripe or hollow, then dried whole on raised beds. The process allows the cherry's sugars and fruit character to migrate inward as it dries — and at this elevation, that process happens slowly enough to preserve clarity alongside intensity.

In the cup: strawberry and hibiscus lead, with a grapefruit-like citrus lift threading through. The acidity is bright but controlled, sweetness well-developed and present without weight. Aromatic, structured, clean for a natural — this is high-altitude Guji with precision rather than ferment-driven heaviness.