ORIGIN STORY
Worka Chelbesa
Worka Chelbesa is located in the Gedeb region of southern Ethiopia and is regarded as one of the most outstanding coffee-producing areas within Gedeb Woreda.
The area is characterized by a semi-natural forest structure, where enset, also known as false banana trees, and coffee trees grow in layered vegetation. This multi-layered environment provides stable growing conditions for coffee, making Worka Chelbesa a representative example of the ecological landscape that defines coffee cultivation in this region.
In Ethiopia, coffee is produced by many smallholder farmers. Cherries grown in different environments are delivered to a washing station, where they are processed and combined into a single lot. However, because cultivation, processing, and export are often handled separately, high-quality cherries do not always translate into equally strong final results.
SNAP Specialty Coffee works to narrow this gap. By operating its own washing stations, SNAP manages the process in one continuous flow, from cherry selection to fermentation and drying. This allows the quality of the cherries produced by farmers to be preserved and further refined during processing.
Key variables such as fermentation time, moisture content, and density are managed within defined standards, helping to reduce the natural variability often found in Ethiopian coffee. For SNAP, processing is not simply a matter of control; it is a way to achieve more stable, consistent, and expressive quality.