Περιγραφή
Coffee Expression Blackberry, cherry, blueberry and citrus carried by a brown sugar sweetness, in a natural-processed Sidama profile.
Producer Grown by “garden farmers” on plots of around 1.5 hectares each, in the shade of native Wanza, Shola and Tsid trees.
Shantawene
Shantawene village sits between the small village of Bombe and Bombe mountain, in the Bensa district of Sidama. The producers behind this lot are part of the Shantawene Kebele community, where both Sidaamu and Amharic are spoken. Like most coffee growers in this part of Ethiopia, they are smallholders and locally referred to as “garden farmers”, a term that reflects the way coffee is cultivated here: on small plots of around 1.5 hectares each, surrounding the homes where the producers live. Many of them also harvest cherries directly from trees growing wild on their own land. This natural occurrence of coffee trees in the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia, is a testament to its rich coffee heritage.
The Bensa District is characterized by its ideal coffee-growing conditions. At altitudes between 2,000 and 2,200 masl, the coffee grows slowly on fertile clay soils, shaded by native Wanza, Shola and Tsid trees. The region has two distinct rainy seasons. The first, known as Belg, falls between late February and May, and the longer Kiremt spans from June to September. Together they bring around 1,200 mm of rain a year, contributing to the lush vegetation and fertile soil that are conducive to coffee cultivation.
The average temperature of around 22°C, combined with the altitude, allows the cherries to ripen slowly on the tree, developing the intensity and sweetness that natural processing brings out so well. At harvest between October and December, cherries are hand-picked at full maturity and moved directly to raised African beds, where they dry slowly under close attention. The cherries are then thoroughly sorted before warehousing.
This lot is composed of the Ethiopian heirloom varieties 74/110 and 74/112, and shows the character we look for in natural-processed coffees from Sidama: layered dark berries and citrus, with a brown sugar sweetness.
