Seven Seeds - Ethiopia Bekele Belaycho - Filter

Bekele Belaycho has worked with our friends and sourcing partners, COQUA Trading, since 2018. This sun-dried Natural lot strikes the perfect balance between wild and precise. You can expect heavy, indulgent tropical tones upfront with a delicate clarity at the back. This wonderful coffee easily stands out in a crowd—a gateway filter for those looking for something slightly more adventurous.

In the grand scheme of things, the Bensa Highlands in Sidama, where this lot is from, would be considered a younger sibling in the birthplace of coffee. Until 2019 Sidama was considered a zone within the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region. However, after a vote, the zone broke away and established itself as the tenth recognized region in Ethiopia. Climate change experienced in this area over the last fifty years has created conditions ideal for growing coffee. Much of the industry in the highlands is at most 20 years old.

The high altitude here means there is limited access to water for cherry processing, resulting in a necessary preference for natural processed lots. Necessity drives innovation, and the young producers of this region are a testament to that. At the 2022 Cup of Excellence, eight of the top ten coffees were natural processed lots from the Sidama region..

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