Ethiopia Demeka Becha - Lot 90/01

Fulfilled by our friends at Whiptail Coffee

Notes: Rose Hips, Apricot, Golden Raspberry, Honeydew Melon

Producer: Smallholder Farmers

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Bona Zuria, Sidama

Elevation: 2100-2200 meters

Varietals: 74/158, 74/165;74/112; 74/110; and 74/40

Process: Fully Washed

Importer: Catalyst Trade

Roast Intention: Filter - Light Roast

Brew Ratio: 1g of coffee to 16g of water

Preferred Brew Method: Pour Over on a V60

 

About the Producer

Demeka Becha site is situated at the top of a hill, which is ideal for airflow along the drying beds. You enter through tin gates which open on to lush green grass and, if you’re lucky, smiling day laborers lined up clapping and whistling their excitement at your visit. The Demeka Becha site is owned by Ayele Tulu, aSidama man who is deeply integrated into the local area of Bona Zuria. Hisson, Tsegab Ayele, manages the project.

The heart, perhaps the true engine of the family, is Genet Haile Endeshow, Tsegab’s mother and Ayele’s wife. She fills up their lives and the home with her warmth, and her embrace expands to include everyone who has the privilege of working with the family and their coffee producing sites. She’ll make you a killer doro wat (chicken stew), which is served to honor guests in Ethiopia, and follow it up with traditional Ethiopian buna (coffee),served on her porch below the flowering vines that shade it even in the heat of midday.

Processing

Demeka Becha site buys cherries from nearby communities including DillaSuke, Demeka, Goacho, Becha, and Bashiro Dale—close to 10,000 producers are situated in the areas surrounding the washing station. Producers bring their cherries to be weighed on the blue scale, logged in the book by Cashier and General Manager, Alemu Gobaro, and floated before being dumped into the cement hopper to begin the journey through the4-disk Agard pulper and into fermentation tanks and cement washing channels. There are 10 tanks for density grades 1 and 2, and 2 tanks for low density coffee destined for our Community Lot program if it meets our standard, or for the local market.

Following fermentation and washing, the parchment coffee is carried by hand to the drying beds where laborers spread it out to the depth of a fingertip and keep it turning until it is dried and moved to the locked storehouse to await trucking to Addis Ababa and final processing.

Price

The FOB price for this lot was $4.50. [FOB price is the total price of the coffee up to the point of departure from the country; it includes farmgate/price paid to the grower, in-country transportation, and the cost of processing and preparation for export. It does not include the price of freight to the US, US warehousing, US customs charges, or the cost of moving coffee with the US.]

During the harvest season from September through December, the New York C price for coffee was an average of $2.14; the $4.50 FOB price for this coffee includes a significant premium for the farmer above the C market price, which reflects the excellent quality of this coffee. After being imported to a warehouse in the consuming country, the United States, the coffee cost was $6.94/lb. The cost of the shipping from the warehouse to our roastery made our final green price $7.38/lb.

Avg. C Price (at the time of harvest): $2.14

F.O.B Price: $4.50

Ex-Warehouse: $6.94

Final Green Price: $7.38

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This item only ships within the United States.