Bochesa / Ethiopia

This year, we began working with a new supplier in Ethiopia, RAD BEST. This coffee is our first release from them.

We started sourcing coffee in Ethiopia in 2020, making this our sixth year. Each year, we visit the country and, whenever possible, select that year's lots from the same suppliers by cupping them in person. This has been our approach throughout. Until now, we have generally selected only one natural coffee among the coffees we purchase each year. This year was different: conditions across Ethiopia's harvest meant there were fewer washed coffees and more naturals available.

The coffees from Arbegona stood out during our cuppings at origin. Grown at high altitudes, they showed almost none of the fermented aromas often associated with natural coffees. The fruit character was distinct, yet the cups remained clean. We felt they brought out only the best qualities of natural processing, so this year we decided to make our shipment from RAD BEST entirely natural coffees.

This coffee was processed at a washing station built in 2022. Led by station manager Shemelis Addisu, the team processes cherries brought in from the surrounding communities. The station's responsibilities include sorting incoming cherries by quality, keeping lot records, drying coffee on raised beds, and providing farmers with technical and financial support. These may sound like ordinary tasks, but when a lot brings together cherries from many different farmers, consistently carrying out these four responsibilities makes a significant difference to quality.

The station's recent establishment is connected to changes in Ethiopia's coffee system. Reforms in 2017 allowed private washing stations to export directly without going through the ECX, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange. Coffee from individual communities could now reach overseas markets under the names of those communities, and stations began appearing in places whose coffees had previously gone unnamed. The coffee business in this area is still only five or six years old, and the region is expected to develop further in both quality and production volume.

The station is located in Arbegona district, in the East Sidama Zone of Sidama Region. These highlands rise to the southeast of Lake Awassa in the Rift Valley and are known as one of Sidama's highest coffee-growing areas. The farms in Bochesa sit at 2,000–2,230 metres. Even compared with the Ethiopian coffees we have sourced before, this coffee is grown at a particularly high elevation. The altitude brings a cool, moist climate. Annual rainfall across Sidama is around 1,200–2,000 mm. Volcanic soil and a large difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures define the growing conditions here, and the cool weather is said to help the cherries ripen slowly.

Sidama was part of the SNNPR, the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, for many years before becoming a separate region in 2020. This history is behind the use of both “Sidamo” and “Sidama” in origin descriptions. Alongside Yirgacheffe and Harar, Sidama is also one of the three coffee origins whose names the Ethiopian government registered as trademarks.

Bochesa, the name of this coffee, is the name of a kebele within Arbegona district. A kebele is Ethiopia's smallest administrative unit, roughly comparable to a village or a small locality in Japan.

The farmers here grow what is known as garden coffee. Coffee trees are planted in fields around their homes, alongside enset, also known as false banana, vegetables, and spices. Most farms are smaller than one hectare and are not planted exclusively with coffee. The farmers do not have their own processing equipment, so the cherries are taken to the station on the day they are picked. More than 800 smallholder households are said to deliver cherries to the Bochesa station, meaning that each lot represents the work of that many producers.

This coffee is naturally processed. Fully ripe cherries are picked by hand and delivered to the station that same day. At intake, flotation or density sorting is used to remove underripe and defective cherries. Overripe or insect-damaged cherries are lighter because they are less dense inside, so they float to the surface and can be separated at this stage. The remaining cherries are spread in thin layers on raised beds, also known as African beds, and turned regularly as they dry. Drying takes around 12–15 days, depending on temperature and humidity.

The difference from washed processing lies in how long the beans remain in contact with the sugars in the fruit. Whereas washed processing removes the fruit flesh and washes the coffee, natural processing leaves the fruit intact as it dries over roughly two weeks. This tends to bring out more pronounced fruit flavours and sweetness. However, keeping the process clean requires regular turning and an even layer of cherries on the beds. If drying is uneven, fermentation can advance too far in some areas and muddy the character of the entire lot.

With a lot that brings together cherries from many farmers, it is harder to tell its story through a single producer. Instead, the quality of the station's management comes through directly in the cup: whose cherries are accepted, when they arrive, and where the acceptance standards are set. We are very excited to see how far this newly established station has developed these practices, and how it will continue to improve.