Ethiopia / Worka Sakaro Fully Ripe Cherries

About the Gedeb Area & Worka Sakaro The Gedeo Zone, located east of the Yirgacheffe region, is divided into six districts, one of which is Gedeb. Gedeb lies approximately 434 km from Addis Ababa. Until a few years ago, it was a remote area that required nearly eight hours by car, but with the opening of the Ethiopia–Kenya highway in 2016, travel time has been reduced to about three hours. This region is exceptionally well suited for coffee production, with coffee planted on nearly one quarter of the total land area. Gedeb itself is divided into 16 administrative units, and Worka Sakaro is one of them. The name “Worka” means “gold” in the local Gedeo language. According to local history, when aides of Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie, visited the area, they were deeply impressed by the hospitality of the people and began referring to the land as Worka—“the land of gold.” The name “Sakaro” comes from a large, well-loved tree that locals affectionately called Sakaro. Together, these two names formed the place name Worka Sakaro.The total land area of Worka Sakaro is approximately 1,300 hectares, more than half of which is planted with coffee. There are three washing stations in the area. In March 2017, one of these washing stations was acquired by Ranger, a sister company of BNT, a leading Ethiopian exporter specializing in high-quality coffees. Ranger assembled a skilled team, offering fair wages, and implemented meticulous processing and drying practices. (The staff can be recognized by their green uniforms.) This marked the beginning of an even stronger commitment to producing top-quality Yirgacheffe coffees. By 2018, Ranger had also acquired the remaining two washing stations in Gedeb. From the 2019 crop onward, the Worka Sakaro washing station has been fully operated by Ranger, a BNT subsidiary. Their goal is to produce the finest Yirgacheffe coffees possible. For the first “Fully Ripe Cherry” lot in the 2018 crop, the process was supervised by Berg Wu, the 2016 World Barista Championship winner, and the coffee was highly praised for its outstanding sweetness.