PRODUCER
The owner of the Bombe processing station is Asefa Dukamo. He has been working with coffee for 27 years and currently works with 300 farmers in the area around the town of Hemesho. Each of these farmers produces an average of 4,000 kilograms of coffee cherries per year on a total area of 375 hectares.
Asefa’s processing plant is located in the Sidamo region at an altitude of 2200 metres above sea level and mainly processes the local variety 74158.
PROCESSING
The special dry fermentation processing is a variation on the traditional way of processing coffee in Ethiopia, but uses much less water and is therefore much more environmentally friendly.
The owner, Asefa Dukamo, adopted this method from the Guatemalan farm La Esperanza, where his son Kenean spent some time, and was impressed by the processing method.
Traditionally, the coffee is de-pulped, but the subsequent fermentation takes place in dry, temperature-controlled tanks with no air. Thanks to this warm and dry environment, the coffee starts to ferment much faster, and this results in a distinctly sweet, complex flavour.
VARIETY
Ethiopia is considered the cradle of coffee and its production is equivalent to nearly 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. It is estimated that thousands of previously undescribed varieties grow in Ethiopia, making the country the region with the greatest coffee biodiversity in the world. Given the historical tradition, the way coffee is grown in Ethiopia, and the political situation, it is almost impossible to find single variety lots (parts of the harvest). Although this has slowly started to change in recent years, for the time being, the typical designation of coffee varieties from Ethiopia is still Ethiopian heirloom varieties or Ethiopian indigenous varieties. This is also the case with this coffee.