Introducing our new Ethiopian coffee on offer. We bought these sweet and juicy beans from The Coffee Quest and are absolutely delighted with them. The processing is quite unusual for Ethiopia – Red Honey. It is reminiscent of naturally processed coffee in taste, but much cleaner. Unfortunately, the total quantity is not very large, but you can still enjoy this coffee on both filter and espresso.
The Farm / Processing station:
The Buncho washing station is located in Shantawene kebele village, which is part of the Bensa region in the Sidama district of Ethiopia. The site, managed by Asefa Dukamo Korma, is located at an altitude of 1 920 – 2 020 m above sea level, high in the beautiful Sidama Mountains, and is designed to produce washed, honey, natural and anaerobic processes. More than 800 farmers from the region contribute their cherries in this location, mostly the 74158 variety.
Buncho is one of several washing stations established by Asefa Dukamo and MuluGeta Dukamo in the famous Sidama coffee growing area. Asefa grew up in a coffee farming family and as a child helped his parents grow coffee and other garden crops. As a teenager, Asefa became a coffee supplier, which meant buying coffee cherries from relatives and villagers in the area to sell to the washing stations. At that time, there were very few washing stations near his village and he often travelled very far to find an outlet for his coffee. So his dream of opening his own station was born. He wanted to help the coffee growers in the area by reducing their travel time, reducing transport costs and allowing them to earn more for their coffee cherries. He opened his first washing station in 1997 less than a mile from his parents’ house and subsequently opened 16 washing stations and 4 dry mills with a focus on sustainability and quality.
Variety:
This lot is made up of a mix of original Ethiopian varieties called Heirloom. This name can hide many hundreds to thousands of varieties of coffee plants. In Ethiopia, and in most other African countries, it is common for dozens to hundreds of small farmers and families to contribute to a single coffee lot. For generations they have owned coffee trees whose origin is unknown.
74158 is a selection of the same variety from Heirloom.
Processing:
Once the cherries arrive at the Buncho station, they are placed in the water where they are sorted and floaters are removed. The cherries are then de-pulped and placed on raised African beds to dry with the mucilage – the honey method. In the Red Honey process, the pulping machine is set to leave approximately 20-50% of the mucilage on the bean. To ensure even drying, the parchment is constantly turned over every day and takes 12-15 days depending on the weather to reach the desired moisture content.
Our baristas notes:
