This is a natural process coffee from the Gesha area of Ethiopia’s southwestern Bench Sheko zone. This area is legendary for being the agreed-upon birthplace of arabica coffee, believed to have evolved over thousands of years in the high elevation forests here. Previously known as “Bench Maji”, this part of Ethiopia has a longstanding commercial coffee trade. Despite a less popular reputation than the country’s southern zones, Bench Sheko, as it’s known today, can still produce exquisite coffee. From Bench Maji to Bench Sheko The Bench Maji zone, in Ethiopia’s far southwest, was until recently part of the country’s Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region—shared by other powerhouse zones like Sidama and Gedeo. The zone was not quite synonymous with the others for production and quality, but nonetheless has for many years had a reputation for stability and predictable cup profiles. In 2021 a successful referendum established a new, separate region comprised of Bench Maji and a few surrounding zones, and is now known as the South West Ethiopia Peoples’ Region, complete with a local party leader and newly-drawn administrative zones. Bench Maji itself now has a new name: Bench Sheko. But the “Bench Maji” image and reputation still persists in the coffee world, and is still often used to market the area’s coffee. Perhaps most famously of all, the Gesha sub-region is believed to be the specific genesis of the world’s most famous coffee cultivar, first commercialized in Panama in the early 2000’s. “Gesha” or “Geisha” cultivars are now grown practically all throughout the Americas due to its popularity and historically high prices. Tracon Trading PLC and Processing Tracon Trading is an independent processor, exporter, and estate owner that works in many of Ethiopia’s key producing zones, including Gedeo and Guji. Tracon manages a large estate in the Gesha region within Bench Sheko, and local smallholder farmers contribute cherry to the processing on site. This natural lot is a combination of coffee from the Tracon estate and 500 surrounding smallholders. To process their naturals, Tracon hand sorts fresh picked cherry upon delivery to the estate. Once sorting is complete, cherry is weighed and logged, and moved directly to raised beds to dry, a process that typically takes 3 weeks. During the drying period the coffee is constantly rotated during the day, and covered at night to prevent the area’s humidity from settling on the cherry’s skin. Fully dried cherry pods are then stored for multiple weeks to stabilize moisture content and water activity, then hulled locally and transported to Addis Ababa for final milling and export.
