Ethiopia Buku Dry Process

Berries, Peach, Mango, Potpourri

This coffee hails from the Guji zone. It comes from small farmers in a town called Kebele, grown at elevations reaching 2,300 meters. For context, most specialty brews are cultivated at nearly half that height. The altitudinous insanity here led to slow cherry maturation and deep flavor development.

Ismael Hassan oversaw processing for this lot—handy, since the guy happens to be a coffee dynamo. He applied a traditional dry method but stacked it with over-the-top quality checks. First, he required that contributing farmers perform their own cherry separations before delivery. After receiving them, he did what any coffee obsessive would do: separated them again. Then he floated the cherries and laid them on raised beds for two to three weeks.

But Ismael’s maniacal work didn’t stop there. He covered his drying beds with a layer of cloth. Why? Because he intended to fastidiously turn the coffee as it dried, and wire bottoms can snag cherries—leading to uneven drying and off-tones. 

In the cup, fruit bursts like fireworks: plump berries, rich mango, crisp peach. They play off one another in a way that suggests both tropics and heartland vines. There’s a jammy bent to the fruits’ interwovenness, along with a slightly piquant edge to the tropical tones. Put them together, and the flavors land like a stick of dynamite.

Backing up the fruit are aromatic herbs and garden tones—lavender, a touch of rosemary, and a potpourri backdrop that opens up as the cup cools. These garden notes balance the fruity sugars, creating a clean finish, which is always a rare pleasure in a dry process.

• Region - Buku Sayisa
• Process - Dry/Natural
• Grade - G1
• Varietal - Heirloom
• Altitude - 2,100 - 2,300 MASL

Best for:

• Pour Over
• Aeropress
• Drip Machine