Adola Extra, Ethiopia
Flavour profile: A very sweet, juicy cup and a little bit funky with notes of blueberries and a hint of dried raspberries and passionfruit. A lingering aftertaste of bergamot.
Colour: Dark blue
Category: Adventurous
Producer: Israel Degfa, of the company Kerchanse
Washing Station: Adola. A privately owned, communal washing station.
The number of delivering farmers: about 2000 smallholding with an average of 1-2 hectares per farm.
Harvested: December to January 2021
Varietal: Indigenous local varietals
Processing: Natural processed
Area: Guji Zone in the Oromia region
Altitude: 2100 masl
Roast Style: Light to medium to enhance the light, juicy mouthfeel with loads of fruity and floral notes.
Why a primary school is needed at Adola
When you visit Ethiopia, what you remember the very most is all of the children. With a fertility rate of 4.14 children born per woman, there are indeed children everywhere.
Although public education is free at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels in Ethiopia, only about 60% of the children go to school. Approximately 2.6 million children of primary school age are not in school, of which 43 percent are boys and 57 percent girls. Only 25 per cent of secondary school-aged children are enrolled in secondary school. Traditional gender norms, a high burden of domestic work, especially for girls, long distances to school are some of the barriers to education. Many of the out-of-school children are from pastoralist, internally displaced or refugee communities (Unicef).
About the primary school at Adola
An entire 10% of the profit of Israel Degfas company, Kershanse, goes into a non-profit sustainability company called Nakala. With Nakala, Israel is exclusively doing sustainability projects, such as clean water supply and electricity instalment, but also building roads and other urgent needs for the community. The NGO is controlled by the local government.
Through the NGO, Israel has also invested in schools within the local communities. At Adola, Israel has built a school for the children living in the area.
As we visited in 2018, the year the school was ready built, but the government had not been able to supply the furniture to the school as planned so the school was totally empty inside. We decided to buy all of the furniture for the school from Drop Coffee. In total there are about 150 children going to school today. In the year to come, we bought educational books and learning materials for the pupils.
About Israel Degfa and Adola
Israel is one of the warmest people we know and also very successful in the business. He was born near Sidamo, Yirgalem, and his parents were both in coffee in different ways. His mum sold coffee at the bus station and his dad was a farmer. This is where he found his love for coffee. He went to primary school in Yiralem and went to high school and college in Addis Abeba.In 2013 Israel founded the company by Kerchanshe trading company that is named after the nearest town, Kerchanste town (fondly referred to as Kercha). Today he has 26 washing stations and a few dry-mills; the guy is 34 years old and has only had the business for 8 years, talk about impressive.
At Adola, local farmers are delivering their freshly picked coffee cherries to the washing station, most of the farmers only have 1 to 2 hectares of land. The days they are not delivering coffee, many of them are working at the washing station. Most of the coffee being delivered to Adola is organically produced, but not everything.
Sustainability
Besides the school, you are contributing towards by buying this product, we have also chosen to work with Israel to support Israel Degfa's work on sustainability for Ethiopian farmers and communities, aiming to get farmers out of poverty through coffee that goes through all of the work set up.
Adola is one of four of his washing stations where the producers are being certified and given a second payment, based on the premiums.
As part of Drop Coffees transparency and the ongoing coffee price crisis, we want to share our FOB prices for the coffee we buy. This coffee has been paid 3USD per pound. The farmers are paid directly when they deliver the cherries during harvest in December-January, paying more than the recommended prices from the government. On top of that, the farmers are given a premium on 10 cents per kilo in July and August.
An entire 10% of Kershanse's profit goes into a non-profit sustainability company, that is investing in schools within the local communities among other things. At Adola Israel has built a school for the children living in the area. Drop Coffee has contributed by buying some furniture for the school.
