Hunkute Cooperative is the second of our new season Ethiopian coffees from our suppliers Nordic Approach, a coffee hunter that is renowned for sourcing some of the best coffees in the world. It's another prime example of a washed Ethiopian, that demonstrates how good coffees from this origin can be when grown, processed and selected by people working at the top of their game.
Hunkute Cooperative is a very refined & complex coffee. It has a very delicate tea like consistency with notes of Earl Grey & Lemon. It also has layers of tropical flavours like Pineapple and Papaya coming through in the cup. This is supported by clean citric acidity that is both bright and refreshing.

The Farmers:

Hunkute is from Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU). The cooperative supports more than 50 washing stations with technical support and finance provided to 1912 smallholders in the area. Hunkute is one of those washing stations.

The wet mill receives daily deliveries of cherries from these smallholder farmers. Farms here are less than 1ha in size. Most coffees are organic by default. Organic compost is common, pruning less common. A typical farmer will have fewer than 1500 trees per hectare, and one tree produces cherries equal to 100 - 200 grams of green coffee.

The Washing Station:

Hunkute is located in the Wonsho woreda, close to Yirgalem town in Sidama. There are two washing stations under the same management. The first was established in 1997, and the second site was built in 2010. Coffees from both sites are marketed as Hunkute and sold through the SCFCU who are also responsible for the dry milling, grading, bagging and export. They have a newly built warehouse and dry mill in the outskirts of Addis to better control their supply chain and qualities.

The Varietals:

This coffee is a mix of local varieties included a local cultivar called Sedancho. These varieties are mixed with native coffee of forest origin transferred to family smallholder plots. These varieties are referred to collectively as Ethiopian Heirloom, which is a myriad of local native Typica hybrids and new improved varieties based on the old strains.

Ethiopia - Hunkute Cooperative

Machina was created by two people looking for their next creative challenge. One, an ex DJ and producer (and coffee nerd) from the music industry, the other, a long time coffee industry professional with a background in training (and an apparent obsession for show singing).

They met through a mutual friend, again through music (a common theme). From here Machina took on it's own momentum, which is an extraordinary story of people, coffee and lots of equipment (that's a lot of equipment...), on a path to becoming a respected speciality coffee roastery.

The business started off as just equipment, but was always working towards one goal - becoming a premium speciality coffee roastery. We just needed to raise funds, and ideally do it without needing to bring in investors who would (no doubt) push us in a direction that we didn't want to go in. We had a vision, and the only way to ensure that actually happened, was to do it ourselves.

Ethiopia - Hunkute Cooperative

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Ethiopia - Hunkute Cooperative

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