This is a smallholder-grown, centrally processed natural from western Guji zone with a unique processing step to enhance the natural flavors and acidity. The Hambela district is well-known for excellent coffees and this lot, from coffee growers in the Buku Sayasa community, is no exception. Welcome to Guji Zone Ethiopia’s Guji zone is a distant and heavily forested swath of land stretching southeast through the lower corner of the massive Oromia region. Guji is heavy with primary forest thanks to the Guji tribe, a part of Ethiopia’s vast and diverse Oromo nation, who have for generations organized and legislated to reduce mining and logging outfits in their area, in a struggle to conserve the land’s sacred canopy. Compared to other coffee-heavy regions, large parts of Guji feel like prehistoric backwoods. Coffee farms in many parts of Guji begin at 2000 meters in elevation and tend to climb from there. The highland farming communities in this part of the country can be at turns Edenic in their natural purity, and startlingly remote. EDN Ethiopian Coffee Export PLC This lot comes by way of the independent Benti Nenka processing site owned and operated by EDN Coffee Export PLC, who manages various processing sites throughout Sidama, Gedeo and Guji zones. EDN’s founder, Michael Gebreselassie, spent many years living in the United States (and working at the Port of Oakland, one of the busiest coffee ports in the country) and watching the popularity of Ethiopia’s coffee continue to grow. Feeling certain that the supply chain could be improved at the farm level, Michael founded EDN in 2018. The coffee itself was grown in Buku Sayasa, part of the Hambela Wamena district in western Guji. Once collected the cherry was transported to a nearby processing site in the community of Benti Nenka. The Benti Nenka site receives cherries from farms up to 2300 meters in elevation, some of the highest in Ethiopia, and indeed the world. Roughly 500 coffee growers contribute coffee cherry to Benti Nenka for processing. Cold Fermentation at Benti Nenka "Cold” anaerobic fermentation is a recent development at the Benti Nenka site. To accomplish the profile, fresh cherry is inspected upon arrival for uniform ripeness and defect, and then packed into large drums with a tightly-sealed lid and kept in a climate-controlled storage facility with temperatures between 8-15 degrees Celsius (46-59 degrees Fahrenheit) to slow and extend the fermentation process. Once fermentation is complete, the soft, syrupy cherry is then moved to shaded drying tables to dry slowly over the course of 2-3 weeks, and is later finished drying in full sun. Despite being a young company, EDN has already begun investigating novel processing equipment and techniques. The company is experimenting with an electronic color sorter for precise cherry selection, something that has existed as a prototype for a number of years but has yet to really penetrate into the producer industry. In addition, the company is working with honey processing and anaerobic fermentation techniques across their processing sites, continuously chasing a portfolio of coffee profiles they believe will best serve their farmers and help the industry achieve new ideals.
