Our Head of Coffee Dave is taking a couple of our roasting partners to visit Ethiopia and meet Moata Raya, founder of coffee exporter Mecota Trading, who will be taking the group to visit the various farmers that he works with.
The group have travelled up to Bensa and Kokose to visit some of the farmers we purchased coffee from in 2024.
One of these farmers is Bekele Belacho, who has farms in both Kokose and Finchawa. This year Bekele is doing some experiments with different types of anaerobic, anaerobic honey, standard honey, and naturals.
He has also just acquired a disc pulper, which is being used to process honey lots. Eventually Bekele would also like to produced washed coffee, something which is rare in his region due to limited access to water.
Also of note is the use of shade drying on these farms. Apparently extending the drying time of the coffee added to the overall shelf life of the beans, so they don’t age as quickly, but do have a clean taste with a bit of extra complexity.
