We've received about 25 different coffees from our Ethiopian partners Bette Buna this harvest cycle, so we’ve decided to name each lot after one of the people who worked on producing it, exporting it, or contributing to social work at Bette Buna.
This one is named for Tangut, Dawit's aunt and a beloved informal leader in Taferi Kela. A fierce feminist, Tangut is one of the few university-educated women in the area and champions women's rights with passion and heart. When she's not working as a school teacher, she spends her time caring for guests at Taferi Kela farm and assisting with various management tasks. We are greatly inspired by her inner strength and commitment to bettering her community despite the many challenges of Ethiopian life.
This coffee is lush and nuanced with notes of raspberry and peach iced tea. Extra coffee pulp was added to the fermentation tank during the anaerobic phase of the process to give it a sweetening boost.
For a bit more about Bette Buna, check out our blog post here or read on below ...
Betta Buna was founded by partners Hester Westerveld-Syoum and Dawit Syoum in 2019 when they inherited their grandfather’s tiny family farm in Taferi Kela, Sidamo. With a background in NGO and development work, they decided to grow and scale the farm as the foundation for a larger company with greater impact.
They have now expanded the Taferi Kela farm from two to 50 hectares and have spread to a second 50-hectare farm in Megadu, Guji. Both farms have tree nurseries where climate change-resistant varietals are grown to share with surrounding farmers. Similarly, they have facilities where they not only process their own lots but also educate other farmers in processing techniques, while their Coffee Campus programme provides training in roasting, brewing, and even exporting. They provide countless opportunities for their farming communities by not only teaching and motivating farmers but also hiring local workers at their nurseries and mills, including single mothers and disabled people who would struggle to find employment elsewhere. They also work hard to incorporate sustainable farming methods, rewild forests on their land, and protect local wildlife to promote ecosystem health for coming generations.
To create this lot, ripe cherries were de-pulped and then fermented with extra pulp from other natural coffee lots in sealed barrels for 96 hours. There were no added yeasts or starters, but the pulp gave the bacteria some extra sugar to feed on. After this, it was spread on raised African beds to dry. After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, there was another round of hand-sorting by the milling team to remove any defects. After that, the bags of green coffee were loaded on a truck to take a three- to five-day day drive to the main dry mill in Gelan. Here the cherries underwent another round of cleaning, screening on size and density, and colour sorting, and were bagged a final time.
We're proud to support Bette Buna and plan to partner with them for many years to come.
Elevation: 2100 MASL
Varietal: Enat Buna, 74158, 7411
Cup score: 88+
Price paid per kg: £15.84
Process: Pulped Anaerobic Natural
