Ethiopia

Bona Beshu

Soft notes of ripe peach in Sidamo

A balanced and floral cup, produced at Egata Beshu’s Bona Zuria station in Sidamo

Deep and rich stone fruit character, especially of peach, alongside subtle black tea and crisp white florals.

Producer
Zuria Farmers
Coffee expression
A floral & balanced coffee

Regular price: $22.00
incl. vat/tax
Sale price: $22.00
incl. vat/tax
Regular price: ~~$22.00~~
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This lot was created at the Bona Zuria station by Egata Beshu, from cherries grown by smallholders surrounding the village of Zuria.

Sidamo

Bona Beshu

Bona Beshu is a lot created by Egata Beshu, processed at the Bona Zuria station in the Sidamo region. Egata is the owner and the mill manager, a very important role in ensuring the quality of lots that leave the station. Ensuring quality of incoming cherry is one such quality control step. The region around the town of Zuria used to have a bad reputation for quality of coffee, as coffees grown above 1900 masl would often die due to very low temperatures. Now due to climate change, these lands have become viable, and the large day night swings in temperature lead to slow maturing and nutrient rich cherries, at altitudes up to 2300 masl.

The simple washed process unveils the character of the heirloom varietals grown in the Sidamo terroir, often driven by ripe stone fruit notes.

Careful sorting, fermentation and drying is then taken care of by Egata at the Bona Zuria station. The cherries are first floated, removing dirt, foreign material and any low density cherries. They are then de-pulped, before being fermented for 72 hours and washed thoroughly to remove all of the sticky mucilage layer. Finally, the clean seeds are dried on raised beds for around 12 days. This simple washed process unveils the character of the Ethiopian raw material, here very reflective of the Sidamo profile. We find deep and rich stone fruit character, especially of peach, alongside subtle black tea and crisp white florals.

The conditions and coffee growing culture in Ethiopia leads to some of the highest quality raw material in the coffee belt.

Coffee growing in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian forrests

In Ethiopia, coffee still grows semi-wild, and in some cases completely wild. Apart from some regions of neighbouring South Sudan, Ethiopia is the only country in which coffee is found growing in this way, due to its status as the genetic birthplace of arabica coffee. This means in many regions, small producers still harvest cherries from wild coffee trees growing in high altitude humid forests, especially around Ethiopia’s famous Great Rift Valley.

There are three categories of forest coffee growing in Ethiopia, Forest Coffee (FC), Semi-Forest Coffee (SFC), and Forest Garden Coffee (FGC), with each having an increasing amount of intervention from coffee producers. Forest coffee makes up a total of approximately 60% of Ethiopia’s yearly output, so this is a hugely important method of production, and part of what makes Ethiopian coffee so unique.

The crisp florals and delicate citrus tea notes here are typical of washed Ethiopian lots.

Heirloom

Throughout all of these systems, a much higher level of biodiversity is maintained than in modern coffee production in most of the rest of the world. This is partly due to the forest system, and partly down to the genetic diversity of the coffee plants themselves. There are thousands of so far uncategorised ‘heirloom’ varieties growing in Ethiopia; all descended from wild cross pollination between species derived from the original Arabica trees. This biodiversity leads to hardier coffee plants, which don’t need to be artificially fertilised. This means that 95% of coffee production in Ethiopia is organic, although most small farmers and mills can’t afford to pay for certification, so can’t label their coffee as such. The absence of monoculture in the Ethiopian coffee lands also means plants are much less susceptible to the decimating effects of diseases such as leaf rust that have ripped through other producing countries.

Technical Data

Producer
Zuria Farmers
Region
Sidamo
Altitude
2200 masl
Varietal
Heirloom
Process
Washed
Harvest
Januar 2022

Washed Process

The washed process involves completely removing both the cherry and the mucilage from the outside of the parchment with the use of friction, fermentation and water. After being harvested, the coffee cherry is then sliced open by either a metal or a sharp plastic blade.

The two seeds (also known as beans) are pushed out of the cherry, which leaves the seed with mucilage as their outermost layer. It is essential in the washed process that all mucilage is removed from the seed which leaves only the flavour that developed in the cell structure of the seed prior to processing.