Basha Bekele White Honey (Extra-Light)
Our Third year working with Basha Bekele and our first featuring his White Honey lot. This coffee is sweet and vibrant and reminds us of wild blueberries, lavender and crispy pear. This is an extra-light roast variant for Basha's White Honey. We offer extra-lights for experienced brewers who pursue clarity over initial intensity and are willing to wait 4-6 weeks for best results. This Extra-light roast is delicate and aromatic and sacrifices intensity of acidity and perceived sweetness. We recommend this roast for ultra-light roast lovers only.
250G
Basha Bekele White Honey (Extra-Light)
September Coffee Roastery
119 Iber Road
Unit 9
Ottawa ON K2S 1E7
Canada
- Variety: Jarc 74158
- Country: Ethiopia
- Region: Bombe, Bensa, Sidama
- Process: White Honey
- Altitude: 2231 MASL
- Harvest: 2024/2025
- Producer: Basha Bekele
- Roast Level: Extra-Light
In the cup
We get an intense aroma of wild blueberries and lavender. This coffee is intensely sweet and aromatic. In the cup we also get malic acidity reminding us of juicy pears with a sweet finish that reminds us of blue gummies.
Funky
Experimental
About The Producer
Before the government made it possible for smallholders to obtain export licenses, both Basha and his father sold their cherry to the cooperative. Basha now has his own export license and grows coffee (primarily 74158, known locally as “Walega”) in semi-forested plots on 12 hectares in addition to operating collection sites in Bombe, Shantawane, and Kokose—collecting cherry from producers growing coffee as high as 2300 masl. Basha has recently received a de-pulper due to the help of Crop to Cup, allowing unique new coffee processes like this one. A family man—he has 11 children with his two wives—Bekele Belaycho operates his farms and drying stations with the help of his family. His son, Beleteno, who graduated this year from Hawassa University with an economics degree, manages his Hora Ganet farm (which means “Spring Paradise”). Between his farm in Bombe and a smaller, 5 hectare farm in Kokose (with its own drying station), Bekele purchases cherry from more than 100 smallholders, producing a total of 1.5 containers of coffee. Like many collectors in Ethiopia, his bottleneck, with cherry prices as high as they are, is financing. Bekele is a connector and a consummate professional—an ideal partner, willing to engage with every idea for improving his coffee and helping his community.
Variety
The Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC), one of Ethiopia’s federal agricultural research centers, approved the release of 74158 in 1979. The variety originally came out of the Metu Bishari Selections taken from mother plants from the Metu woreda (district) of the Illuababora zone. 74158 was selected and propagated for its high yield potential and resistance to coffee berry disease.
Transparency
Imported
We Paid
Roasted Costs