Roaster's Notes: Bold, juicy and full of flavour. Exactly what you want from a natural Ethiopian coffee. Like a blueberry jam with a honeysuckle aroma, and dark rum boozy-ness. Delicious!

Farm Info
Producer: Legu Trading
Region: Yirgacheffe

Background Information

This exceptional lot was processed, dry milled and exported by Legu Trading. The coffee was grown by smallholder farmers living around the town of Banco Gotete in Gedeo County, Yirgacheffe region.

Most contributing farmers own less than a hectare of land, and they grow coffee simply as a backyard cash crop. Coffee will usually be interspersed with other subsistence crops, such as sweet potato, mangos and avocados. Varieties of coffee grown are usually interpreted to be ‘heirloom,’ as very little renovation takes place, and farmers simply inherit the trees of their parents. This is why the varieties are referred to as ‘heirloom’ by the industry. Locally, many farmers simply call them ‘Gedeo’ variety.

Income from coffee is important but minimal for most farmers due to the small size of their farms. As such, inputs are minimal – most coffee grown in the region is 100% organic, though not certified, as farmers simply don’t have the money to apply chemical fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.

Legu trading tries to help with this situation by offering a premium price and by hiring as many individuals as possible in their mills and facilities. The company hires at least 300 people year round and up to 600 in the high season. All workers are paid a fair wage and receive full, 8 hour work days.

Coffee is selectively hand-picked before being delivered to collection points, usually within 10 km of the producers’ homes. Great care is taken upon delivery to separate out any overripe, underripe or damaged beans before consolidating with other lots for the road to the wet mill.

At least once a day, the collected coffee cherry is delivered to the mill, where it is pulped and then delivered to a fermentation tank, where it ferments for 12-18 hours depending on the climate at the time. After fermentation the coffee is fully washed through grading channels and is then delivered to dry on African beds. Once here, the parchment is turned regularly and protected from hot sun until it reaches the optimal humidity, at which point it is bagged and rested.

Varieties of coffee grown here are traditionally referred to as ‘heirloom’ by exporters – a catchall terminology which often masks the wide assortment of varieties that may be present within various regions…even, within farms. Many of these varieties will have been developed by Ethiopia’s Jimma Agricultural Resarch Centre (JARC), which, since the late 1960s, has worked to develop resistant and tasty varieties for the Ethiopian coffee industry and also to provide the agricultural extension training needed to cultivate them. The dual factors of Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) forced anonymisation of lots (see below) combined with the relatively low awareness of formal variety names outside Ethiopia has meant that the JARC’s work has historically been under-recognised by specialty importers and roasters, but a new book issued by Counter Culture Coffee in the USA (2018/19) has drawn new attention to the topic, and rightly so.

It is important to note that varieties in Ethiopia fall within two main groups – regional or local landraces (of which there are at least 130, 33 of which would hail from the Southern growing regions) or JARC varieties. It is still very hard to tell but it is highly likely that this lot contains a great percentage of JARC 740110 and 74112 varieties, developed in 1974 by the JARC, which are directly descended from local landraces indigenous to the Gedeo Region. Most farmers have a mix of both the improved and the indigenous landrace varieties (inherited from parents and grandparents) on their farms, though research by Counter Culture’s Getu Bekele does show that there is a strong concentration of the JARC ’74 varieties.

Banco Gotete Natural, Ethiopia

Founded in 2015 by Luke Underdown (pictured centre), Garage Coffee is a speciality coffee roasters based in the beautiful village of Hoath, just outside of Canterbury, Kent. Owner & Founder Luke identified a gap in the market to bring great coffee to the people of Kent, and started of trading at local markets and events to build the Garage brand. By 2016, Garage Coffee had gained a significant following and started to supply some wonderful hospitality businesses across the county.

In 2017, Garage Coffee opened it's flagship shop and training room in the heart of Canterbury, just off the high street and now has a small team making great coffee and sharing the same vision!

We roast in small 3kg batches for optimum quality, and only roast speciality grade coffees which are always fully traceable and fairly traded. Since launching, we have been building relationships with farmers, and sourcing coffee from the same farms season after season, with plans to make trips to these farmers in the near future!

And finally, why Garage Coffee?  Well, we are not actually based in a garage. But that's where it all started! Our roastery is situated on a campsite in Hoath and Luke had plans to convert a garage on site into a wonderful roasting labrynth - however it was just a little too close to the campers! So, he decided to source a shipping container and convert into a roastery! As 'Shipping Container Coffee' didn't quite have the same ring - he decided to stick with 'Garage Coffee', and 

Banco Gotete Natural, Ethiopia

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Banco Gotete Natural, Ethiopia