Ethiopia - Arbegona Natural

Elto Coffee is the passion project of Sidama Bensa-based couple Eliyas Dukamo and Atiklit Dejene. Their activities aim to honor every facet of coffee by producing exclusive and outstanding nano-lots. They do this by using the highest quality cherries cultivated and harvested by the smallholder farmers in the proximate communities and processing them through contemporary updates to traditional methods and styles.

They named their company “Elto” which, we learned from Atiklit, means “more than passion” and “abundance” in the Sidamic language. Their aspiration is for every Elto coffee to be the most exciting cup a consumer has ever tasted.

Guided by the values of honesty, respect, and humility to always remain open to learning, they are committed to engaging in meaningful relationships with their connections throughout the value chain, fostering a spirit of dynamic creativity in the industry, and showcasing the Elto rendition of Sidama Bensa coffees to the world. They consider their greatest task to be empowering their partner coffee farmers through more rewarding returns for their assiduous work.

The Arbegona district made headlines in 2022 when a natural-processed 74158 variety from one of its villages ranked 1st in the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence. The coffee-growing communities here are nestled among the highest elevations in Sidama Bensa, where the ideal conditions for cultivating coffee cherries of the highest quality coalesce.

As customary in the country, the 500 - 750 smallholder coffee farmers in Arbegona Village, each tending to 1-2 hectare plots, follow traditional farm practices making their coffees inherently organic, while the beneficial microclimate and healthy soils encourage more sugars to develop. By selectively handpicking, they preserve the integrity of each cherry and avoid harming the coffee trees.

With Eliyas and Atiklit’s involvement, it has become possible to fully explore the flavor potential and optimize the value of their harvests, which they had not been able to previously due to limited know-how on updated cultivation and post-harvest processing best practices.

Eliyas and Atiklit are seasoned specialty coffee professionals with grassroots working experience complementing their solid academic backgrounds. Both of them are professional cuppers trained by the Ethiopian Tea and Coffee Authority.

Eliyas, who graduated with a Bsc in Marketing Management has taken the lead in Daye Bensa Coffee as Operations Manager. Meanwhile Atiklit, who graduated with a BSc in Agriculture focused on Plant Science, has built her career so far by working in Gesha Village as Coffee Processing Manager and in Daye Bensa as Lab Manager for Microlot Processing at harvest time.

‘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, to boost the country's coffee industry. 



These varieties 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 environmental conditions. 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.



Sidama Bensa-grown 74158, a JARC variety generally observed to express Geisha-esque floral, citrus, and honeyed notes, has consistently ranked among the best at the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence and fetched the highest prices at the auction.

For this lot, the perfectly ripe, hand-harvested, and carefully pre-cleaned cherries were placed directly onto the raised beds in even layers to sun-dry. A majority of women processing workers stirred the cherries every 30 minutes to facilitate uniform drying. The cherries spent a total of 15 to 18 days in the drying phase until the target moisture level was reached.

Through the traditional natural process, this cup’s character was directed more toward layers of nectarous sweetness balanced by subtle acidities and an aromatic and delicate tea-like quality.