Ethiopia Kercha Bilida Bukisa

In the Kercha district of Ethiopia's Guji zone, forest canopy still stretches over the coffee trees. The Guji people have defended this highland landscape for generations, keeping mining and logging out so the trees grow about as close to wild as commercial farming allows. Washed processing brings the result into focus: stone fruit sweetness, bright acidity, and the clear signature of a place that earned its own name.

OriginEthiopia RegionGuji / Kercha Elevation1,900-2,200m ProcessWashed VarietyHeirloom The Source

Where the Forest Still Stands

Guji runs southeast through the lower reaches of Oromia, heavily forested and genuinely remote. For decades coffee from this area was sold under the Sidamo name, but the cups told a different story, and in 2018 Guji won recognition as its own origin. Kercha sits inside this protected landscape, where roughly 782 smallholder farmers deliver cherry to the Banko Michicha washing station, established in 2011. Most of these growers work just a couple of hectares each, tending the indigenous heirloom varieties that give the region its citric brightness and floral depth.

The farms start around 1,900 meters and climb from there. At that altitude, cool nights slow the cherries as they ripen, and the slower they mature, the more sugar and layered complexity they build. That patience in the field is what washed processing later puts on display, with nothing added and nothing hidden.

The Craft

Washed for Clarity

Within hours of picking, cherry arrives at Banko Michicha and moves across its 108 raised drying beds. The fruit is depulped right away, then the beans rest in water to break down the sticky mucilage before they are washed clean and dried slowly on the beds. The point of the washed method is restraint: strip away the fruit sugars and what remains is the coffee itself, the volcanic soil and the high-elevation florals coming through without interference.

We roast this lot to City+, a medium-light level that protects the delicate stone fruit and keeps the acidity lively. A darker approach would flatten the very things that make Guji distinct. Instead the roast stays out of the way and lets the origin speak.

Peach Honey Citrus Milk Chocolate BodyMedium AcidityBright The Cup

Balanced Brightness

Peach opens the cup, ripe stone fruit that reads more elegant than jammy. Honey sweetness rounds out the bright citrus acidity that keeps everything lively, and milk chocolate settles the finish with depth rather than weight. The medium body carries these flavors with poise, the kind of coffee that feels approachable on the first sip and reveals its layers on the second.

Find Your Fix

Pour-over methods like the V60 or Beehouse give this coffee room to show its stone fruit character and bright acidity. Brew at a 1:16 ratio with water near 202F. It also pulls a fruit-forward espresso with chocolate undertones at a 1:2 ratio in 26 to 28 seconds. Browse the full coffee beans selection and find your fix.

Roasted in small batches at our Virginia Beach roastery.

Packaged in reusable glass mason jars, returned locally for reuse. Solar-roasted.

Virginia Beach, VA