Ethiopia

Bensa Shantawene

/Behind the story/

About 14 hours drive from the capital Addis Ababa, you will find the upland communities around the Shantawene village in the Bensa district of Sidama region. This area is well known as “ Konjo Buna” which means “good coffee” in Ethiopian. The producers Dukamo are working with more than 500 smallholders and consists of 16 local mill stations and only one farm from Shantawene, called Daye Bensa Gatta. Last year, Assefa brothers coffee become quite successful, scored 89.21 points in the first CUP OF EXCELLENCE ETHIOPIA 2020 and placed on rank #7 with variety 74158 processed natural. Assefa Dukamo owns 31 hectares of land on which he grows coffee organic, Rainforest Alliance and Utz-certified coffee.

/Layered Fermentation/

Investing in upgrading processing equipment on site, received a lot of attention due to the fact that the mill station at Shantawene village run by Assefa brothers took 7th place in the inaugural CUP OF EXCELLENCE competition for Ethiopia. This allows him to start working on new and exciting processing varieties, such as the prominent 74158 or Kurume, Typica, Dega. He has 11 permanent and 30 temporary employees. After harvest the red cherries are submerged in clean water to remove the floaters by hand and then placed directly in a sealed tank for a natural anaerobic fermentation process for 36 to 48 hours. After fermentation, they are carefully placed for drying under a covered African bed for 30 days. Later when the drying phase is complete, the coffee is placed directly in GrainPro bags to retain its character.


/Brew guide/
Age to drink: 5 days after roast
Coffee amount: 15g
Water amount: 250g, ppm 100-125
Temperature: 93-94 Celsius
Pours: 4 pours, 50g, 70g, 60g, 70g
Brewing time: 2:15-2:30