Ethiopia - Hamasho - Coffee Capsule Box of 52

About Hamasho Village
Hundreds of smallholder farmers in the Bombe Mountains of Sidama Bensa comprise Hamasho Village, where the craft of coffee cultivation is built on generations of endurance and experience. Since they traditionally drink their own coffee, they have an instinct for what high quality tastes like. With the efforts of Daye Bensa Coffee to enhance this knowledge, Hamasho Village farmers are able to maintain and even raise their crops’ quality and commercial viability.
The name Hamasho is Sidamic for snake, a cultural symbol for strength that also holds spiritual significance.

The Producer
Daye Bensa Coffee is the 2022 2nd Place Winner of the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence.
The company was founded over 20 years ago by Asefa Dukamo with the vision to uplift the lives of coffee farming families in his hometown Daye in the Bensa district of Ethiopia’s Sidama region. Growing up, he appreciated the beauty and rewards of the trade but also noticed the hardships faced by the farmers daily and in the long term.
While the natural environment at altitudes exceeding 2000 masl was conducive to growing high-quality coffee, enabling infrastructure to process and market it did not exist. Together with his brother Mulugeta Dukamo, he would find a way to overcome this obstacle by setting up wet and dry mills at strategic locations and, not long after, their own exporting company.
Daye Bensa Coffee is active in educating the farming community about quality, mindful that this is crucial for the trade to thrive and provide stable livelihood for generations to come.

Archers x Daye Bensa Coffee
The Archers and Daye Bensa Coffee partnership started in 2020 with an offering of Peaberry Shantawene Natural and Hamasho Village Natural. Well-received by our community, we worked closely with Daye Bensa to add more of their coffees to our collection. To date, we have introduced Hamasho Village Anaerobic, as well as Gatta, Bombe, Bensa, Damo, and Hamasho Village Washed.
Marking our third year of prosperous partnership, we have collaborated on this exclusive Archers Lot. It showcases our combined knowledge and our shared commitment to innovation and quality.
Attuned to the evolving taste of our customers and having grown very familiar with Daye Bensa’s techniques and the varieties 74158, 74112, 74110, we felt it was the right time to curate the processing approach. Mainly, this meant incorporating our own parameters for fermentation and drying into Daye Bensa’s process. Our aim was to intensify the cup attributes we already know the market loves.
In doing so, we achieve a few things at once. First, we help Daye Bensa and their out growers improve the quality and value of their coffee with our feedback. Second, we heighten the consumer’s enjoyment of their favorite coffees. Third, we demonstrate great synergy between the producer, green buyer, and roaster, and how it benefits all involved, especially the farmers and our consumers.

Daye Bensa named this micro-lot in recognition of the powerful culture of the Sidama Bensa/Hamasho Village where the coffee cherries are grown. Hamasho is Sidamic for snake, a resonant cultural symbol that holds spiritual significance.

Traceability, being a critical contributor to quality and a vital tool for the inclusion and empowerment of members of the farming communities —harvested red, ripe cherries are segregated by village. Necessarily, the cherries are labeled with key identifiers (such as: delivery date, farm name, lot name) and kept separate throughout the stages of drying, processing, and until storage.

Limited production of this micro-lot sharpens the focus on quality. It enables the harvesting only of red, ripe cherries, and further re-sorting, as well as the assignment of the proper number of aptly skilled workers to the labor-intensive task of drying.

The drying method uses a wooden African bed with a plastic net, which allows for air circulation above and below. As a crucial quality safeguard, each bed is looked after by the capable hands at Daye Bensa, stirring the cherries every 15 to 20 minutes to ensure uniformity. Drying would take 13 to 15 days, depending on the weather.

Creativity comes into play in the pursuit of unique cup profiles, as Daye Bensa engages in different experiments and fermentation methods. Their guiding belief and battlecry: Creativity is endless!