Basha Bekele & Bekele Belaycho - Ethiopia
Our second year working with Basha Bekele and our first with Bekele Belaycho. This is a combined special experimental washed lot and is very sweet and juicy, with bright stone fruits like Peach and apricots and delicate florals.
200G
- Variety: Jarc 74158
- Country: Ethiopia
- Region: Bombe, Bensa, Sidama
- Process: Washed
- Altitude: 2250 MASL
- Harvest: 2023/2024
- Producer: Basha Bekele & Bekele Belaycho
- Roast Level: Light
In the cup
We get an intense aroma of nectarines and florals. This coffee has an intense sweetness of juicy peaches and bright tropical and lemon-lime citric acidity. This coffee has delicate florals and a long sweet finish. It has a round silky body.
Funky
Process
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.
Processing
JARC 74158 grown at 2250 MASL. They're hand-picked and sorted for ripeness; floated; pulped using their new hand-pulper into plastic drums; floated; fermented using Lalcafe INTENSO yeast under clean water in shade for 48 hours, mixing every twelve hours, agitated to loosen mucilage, drained and dried on raised beds under shade for 25 days. This coffee was overseen by Christopher Feran who offered processing protocols.
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