Worka is a large municipality in the Gedeb district, the southernmost district of Ethiopia’s famous Gedeo zone and it is one of the oldest and largest individual cooperatives that make up the storied Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU).

Gedeo as a whole is frequently referred to as “Yirgacheffe”, after the zone’s most famous central district. Coffees from this district, much closer to Guji zone than the rest of Gedeo, are often the most explosive cup profiles we see from anywhere in Ethiopia.

Worka was established in 2006, only a few years after YCFCU itself was founded. The cooperative began with 210 member farmers; today there are over 1,400 farmers spanning 2,500 hectares of coffee production—just under 2 hectares apiece on average, although occasionally farms can be 10 hectares or more.

Washed coffee is produced very straightforwardly at the coop. Cherry is picked daily during harvest and delivered to the coop by individual farmers. All cherry is sorted on arrival, depulped and fermented overnight in open tanks, and then washed clean and soaked in fresh water before being transferred to the raised drying tables.

This coffee delivers everything we expect from a classic washed profile from this area, it is sweet with notes of juicy stone fruit and black tea.