Ethiopia - Bombe Village

Daye Bensa Coffee is the 2022 2nd Place Winner of the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence.

Brothers Asefa and Mulugeta Dukamo started the company with one small office and a single washing station, and the vision to uplift the lives of coffee farming families in their hometown, Daye Bensa, Sidama. 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. Now they have 71 washing stations, 11 dry mills, and three farms, with work in progress to expand to neighboring areas Guji, Bale, and West Arsi.

The majestic Bombe Village, situated among mountains at 2,230 masl, is home to a community of nearly 700 coffee farmers who share a profound connection because of their dedication to perpetuating their heritage of cultivating excellent coffees and the determination to overcome adversity to realize their family’s aspirations through coffee.

Across ancestral lines, these farmers whose families include a remarkable number of children, have committedly toiled to hone their craft. They are driven by their desire to sufficiently provide for their children and pave the way for future generations to continually enjoy an improved quality of life.

With assistance from Daye Bensa, they are empowered with updated know-how to sustainably nurture their farmlands, ranging from 2 to 7 hectares, which are both their sanctuary and source of livelihood.

Daye Bensa’s involvement in post-harvest processing colors every harvest season with anticipation and hope because they provide the opportunity to pool cherries into commercially viable volumes and also the facilities to optimize the flavor potential of the cherries in order to deliver better value back to the farming families.

Daye Bensa Coffee is one of Ethiopia's Top 5 Coffee Exporters. They supply 7,500 tons annually to 25 countries. Unlike others, they produce their own coffee on this massive scale and operate a relationship-based model with farmers, buyers, and other producers, allowing them to directly influence and improve their coffee's quality.

With Kenean Dukamo, Asefa’s son and second-generation leader, on-board, Daye Bensa looks to build on their COE win by creating a division focused on "intentional coffees.” They are also looking at creative collaborations with outside sectors like the arts or winemaking.

Archers x Daye Bensa

The Archers bond with Daye Bensa goes a long way back. It's also a connection marked by exhilarating milestones, such as: Archers’ first stint at the National Brewers Cup in 2021 where our co-founder and green buyer Frederick Bejo showcased a progressive rendering of Hamasho Village on-stage; our first creative processing collaboration that brought us exclusive Hamasho 192 Hrs and Gatta Warm Anaerobic Archers lots, our inaugural learning adventure at origin when we flew to Ethiopia for the CQI Q Processing 2 The Professional at Gatta Farm, Sidama Bensa, and that epic private cupping event featuring 20 cup profiles expressed by a single Ethiopian variety processed in 20 different ways.

‘Ethiopian heirloom’ is the general term commonly used to identify coffee originating from Ethiopia. It covers two classifications: Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) varieties and regional landrace varieties. JARC varieties were developed and released to improve the productivity and livelihood of smallholder coffee farmers and boost the country's coffee industry.

They are promoted and bred because of their good quality when grown at the recommended elevations, resistance to or tolerance of adverse elements, and adaptability to diverse environments. There are 40+ JARC varieties comprised mostly of pure line selections and a handful of hybrids. Regional landraces, meanwhile, are varieties that propagate in the wild, without regulated interventions.
74110 and 74112 are JARC varieties whose combined flavor potential we have grown familiar with in our years of working with Daye Bensa.


Archers has offered Bombe Village Natural in 2021 and 2022. 2021 had tasting notes of mandarin orange, apricot, strawberry, and caramel, while 2022 had orange, apricot, pineapple, mixed berries, and floral honey. Both years, the crops consistently showcased a sweet, succulent, and pleasantly tart apricot note alongside prominent sweetness — caramel in 2021 and floral honey in 2022. While both years showcased diversely aromatic and fruit-forward qualities, 2022 had a wider spectrum that included berries, citrus, tropical fruit notes, as well as some florality.

This 2023 Bombe Village Natural is a surprise stunner, with the heightened aromatics of serenely floral lavender and invigorating lemongrass — both of which had not been there before — intertwined with mouthwatering nectarine and the creamy sweetness of papaya.