Our first Ethiopian offer of 2021 has finally arrived, bringing with it those classic summer fruit flavours that we love. This lot was grown by Mrs. Desalech Mussie, who raises coffee on five and a half hectares of land in the Yirgacheffe region, alongside her husband and six children. 

Our first Ethiopian offer of 2021 has finally arrived, bringing with it those classic summer flavours we love from the birthplace of coffee. This lot was grown by Mrs. Desalech Mussie, a farmer who we are purchasing from for the first time this year. Mrs. Mussie and her family grow coffee on five and a half hectares of land in the kebele (roughly translated as ‘neighbourhood’) of Hafursa Waro, in the mountainous region of Yirgacheffe. Like most Ethiopian farmers, she raises local varieties of coffee trees - in this case Kumie, Diga, and Wilsho – genotypes exclusive to Ethiopia. Unique genetics alongside expert cultivation and processing creates flavours which are practically unheard of anywhere else, giving Ethiopia its well deserved reputation as arguably the world’s leader in coffee excellence.

Due to a complex web of historical, social and political factors, transparency and traceability in Ethiopia can be challenging. The country has literally hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers, but with an average farm size of only a half a hectare, individual farmers must typically aggregate their harvest with others to reach an exportable volume. On top of farm size, Ethiopian traditional values put the needs of their community over the individual, expressed throughout their society by strong co-operative organisations and by the concept of ‘yilugnta’ or selflessness. Many Ethiopians feel that the individual success of a person must be tempered by being community-minded, inclusive, and hospitable. These are some of the reasons that buying from individual farmers has been difficult and is still not common practice.

Mrs. Mussie, who has a larger farm by Ethiopian standards, grows enough coffee to separate into an individual lot, producing approximately 2400kg of coffee this year. Tracon Trading, an Ethiopia-based exporter, work with approximately 300 individual farmers as part of their program to promote direct-to-farmer transparency. Without their on-the-ground support, this type of relationship simply wouldn’t exist in a context like Ethiopia, so we are very grateful to Tracon and our import partners at Olam for the opportunity to work with Mrs. Mussie’s coffee.

This year, each of our Ethiopian offerings will raise money for Project Waterfall, a charity whose current project is building clean water and sanitation facilities for communities in Ethiopia. Not only is clean water a human right, it is also one of the most important protections against COVID-19. As coffee lovers, many of us look forward to Ethiopian coffee season every year. What better way to celebrate this beautiful and foundational country - coffee’s original origin - than to give back to those who live there. 

Desalech Mussie

Specialty coffee roaster, sourcing the finest beans from around the world, roasting in London, supplying mighty fine craft coffee wholesale, retail and online.

Desalech Mussie

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Desalech Mussie

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