The processing team in Taferi Kela is led by Hester, Dawit, and Sissay, the team processes each lot with a controlled approach that brings out the absolute best of the cherry. Their dedication and perseverance created this 10 bag microlot.

The ‘kickstart’ process was developed by the processing team at Bette Buna as a way to concentrate the sugars and change their structures before the normal natural processing begins. After taking the cherries to the wet mill, the team gave them a “kick” by putting them in an anaerobic environment for a short amount of time before continuing processing. Not long enough for official fermentation to begin, but long enough that the structure of the sugar within the cherries changed. This produces lots with more sweetness and body on top of the standard Sidamo natural profile.

After this the coffee is dried normally on raised African style beds. It’s now a standard processing technique for the Bette Buna team, and we think the results speak for themselves.

Once the correct moisture level was reached, the cherry was bagged, tagged and moved to store to rest for a minimum of 8 weeks to improve the complexity and intensity of each cup profile. After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, the team applied another round of hand sorting to remove any primary defects. After that, the bags of green coffee were loaded on a truck to take a 3-5 day drive to the Bette Buna dry mill in Gelan, located close to Addis Ababa. Here the green beans underwent another round of cleaning, screening on size and density, and color sorting, and were bagged a final time, ready to be exported!