Lot 25.26

Working in Guji is very different from working in Taferi Kela. The culture is unique and presents its own challenges – for example, Sidama is densely populated, but Guji is remote with few people per square meter, so labour logistics are trickier. There are safety and predictability challenges, as well as language barriers and different customs. 

We’re very lucky to work with a great team in Guji, including two traditional chiefs who support our endeavors. Chiefs Duba and Saffay are incredibly important to us; they help manage the farm plots and enable us to grow coffee in a sustainable way. They are both highly respected community leaders and know how to address social issues correctly. We wanted to create some special lots to honor them and thank them for their assistance.

This lot is named in honor of Chief Saffay, and Lot 25.25 is for Chief Duba. Both lots are signature natural lots of outstanding quality. This is our fourth year working with Guji coffee, and our third year processing it in this way.

We improve the lots every year, and even after the green coffee lands at your roastery it will keep getting better! They have different profiles, but both lots will give you that classic, delicious Bette Buna taste. 

This year’s harvest was early! In Guji, we usually start harvesting in December, but this year the cherries were ready to pick in November. 

After picking, the fresh cherries were placed on African raised beds and hand sorted by each farmer as a way of “pre-cleaning” out underripe and overripe cherries and any leaves or sticks.

The sorted cherries were then kept on the beds to dry in the sun until the right moisture level was reached. The raised beds are important to facilitate airflow to ensure equal drying of each cherry. The drying process takes about 20-25 days, depending on the strength of the sun.

Once the correct moisture level was reached, the dry cherries, still in their natural hulls, were bagged and moved to our Bette Buna mill in Megadu. There we allow natural lots to rest for a minimum of 8 weeks after bagging to improve the complexity and intensity of each cup profile. We control the potential quality of each lot in our coffee lab, and decide which “sub-lots” could work as a community blend.

After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, we applied another round of hand sorting by our milling team to remove any defects. After that, the bags of green coffee were loaded on a truck to take a 3-5 day drive to our main dry mill in Gelan. Here the cherries underwent another round of cleaning, screening on size and density, and color sorting, and were bagged a final time.

Guji Megadu

We are rooted in our communities and committed to building a positive and sustainable future by educating and creating equal opportunity jobs at our own facilities.

By distributing climate-resistant seedlings and providing "learning by doing" programs for children and adults, we facilitate our communities to transform their futures. We are honored to work with local chiefs, community leaders, and smallholder farmers to grow and source our spectacular Bette Buna coffees.

At our farms in Taferi Kela-Sidamo and Guji-Megadu we work closely with our family and neighbours to grow seedlings, rewild coffee forests, and train farmers in methods of growing and processing that create opportunities for everyone in our community.

Learn more!