Ethiopia - Benti Nenka Guji Hambela

After years of studying and working in the UK and the US, 2018 saw Michael Tseyahe co-found EDN Ethiopia Coffee, a coffee-producing and exporting company with five processing sites, also known as washing stations, in Ethiopia. They started the company with a noble sense of responsibility to contribute to nation-building by directly participating in advancing the country’s agricultural agenda, being its predominant source of both national income and pride.

In so doing, EDN is among the enablers of bettering coffee-growing families’ welfare while helping introduce improvements and innovations to traditional know-how, thereby supporting efforts to perpetuate the country’s intangible heritage in coffee.

Quality-focused and customer-oriented, the company has invested in nurturing its ties with peer producers and the smallholder farmers within their scope, skill-building within their teams, as well as building out the appropriate infrastructure to meet the requirements of its global customers. As such, they have been gaining renown for their professionalism and reliability as a provider of higher-end specialty coffees in small and difficult-to-acquire batches amid an increasingly challenging milieu.

Washed, natural, honey, and anaerobic post-harvest processing methods are implemented across EDN’s processing sites located in two of only three eminent coffee-growing administrative regions recognized at the Ethiopian Cup of Excellence from 2021 to 2022, both in the south. First is SNNPR (i.e. the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region), where the neighboring Yirgacheffe and Gedeb districts within the Gedeo zone are located. Second is the Oromia Region, where the Hambela district within the Guji zone is.

The lush, verdant, and mountainous Guji terrain situated at 1,950 to 2,300 masl receives abundant rainfall and is rich in fertile soils, comprising a conducive, shaded environment for diverse coffee trees to flourish.

Coffee farming families in the Hambela district customarily use traditional, and by default organic, practices to cultivate different varieties alongside other food crops across 1 to 2 hectares of land. Intercropping is a means for them to have a steady food source while maximizing the earning opportunities brought about by the high quality and distinct profiles of their coffee.

About 450 to 500 families in the Benti Nenka Village entrust the best of their harvests to EDN’s nearby eponymous processing site in the hope that their hard work will yield commensurate rewards.

Kurume is one of the varieties native to the Gedeo zone and reportedly originated from the Yirgacheffe. Collectively, coffee varieties that have naturally occurred and proliferated in Ethiopia are referred to as “regional landraces.”

“Ethiopian heirloom,” meanwhile, is the general term commonly used to identify coffee originating from Ethiopia. It covers regional landraces and Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) varieties, which were developed and released to improve the productivity and livelihood of smallholder coffee farmers and boost the country's coffee industry.

74112 is one of the 40+ JARC varieties that 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.

Ethiopian heirlooms are popularly observed to express archetypal fruity and floral qualities and a complex character.

The properly ripe cherries are carefully hand-picked by the farmers and delivered to the Benti Nenka Processing Site, where flotation is done to spot and remove overripe, underripe, and damaged cherries. EDN employees then do a further visual assessment to ensure only the cherries at optimum ripeness proceed to the anaerobic fermentation phase, which ensues in pressurized and oxygen-free containers.

Throughout fermentation, there is strict monitoring and control to ensure the necessary sugar content, temperature, and pressure levels are met and maintained, and oxygen is consistently absent, to achieve the desired cup profile.

After 10 to 12 days in the anaerobic fermentation phase, the cherries are transferred from the fermentation tanks to the drying beds, which had been designed to allow for proper air circulation. Throughout the drying phase, which could last from 15 to 20 days until the target moisture level of 11% is reached, the cherries are periodically churned to achieve the required degree of fermentation.

Washed Guji coffees tend to exhibit floral aromatics, mild sweetness alongside a prominent brightness, and even hints of mint like in lemongrass. As a Natural Anaerobic, this Guji Hambela micro-lot instead expresses an intensified, candy-like and tropical sweetness, accented by streaks of rounded stonefruit and berry-like acidities.