Ethiopia Meseret Kickstart Natural

We’re getting about 25 different coffees from our Ethiopian partners Bette Buna this year, so we’ve decided to name each lot after one of the people who worked on producing it, exporting it, or contributing to social work at Bette Buna. This one is named for Meseret (pictured above, center), one of the leaders of the women’s group in the Taferi Kela nursery. She is tough and reliable, and brings structure, smiles, and hope to the entire group. She and her team cultivate the seedlings that eventually grow this coffee.

This 'kickstart' natural coffee is super sugary and juicy thanks to a special processing technique developed by the Bette Buna team. The cherries were flash-fermented before continuing with the natural process, giving them an extra burst of sweetness alongside fruity notes of melon, caramel, and ripe plum. We think it tastes like an epic summertime dessert.

For a bit more about Bette Buna, check out our blog post here or read on below ...

Betta Buna was founded by partners Hester Westerveld-Syoum and Dawit Syoum when they inherited their grandfather’s tiny family farm in Taferi Kela, Sidamo. With a background in NGO and development work, they decided to grow and scale the farm as the foundation for a larger company with greater impact.

Having started in 2019, they have already grown considerably. They have expanded the Taferi Kela farm from two to 50 hectares and have spread to a second 50-hectare farm in Megadu, Guji. Both farms have tree nurseries where climate change-resistant varietals are grown to share with surrounding farmers. Similarly, they have facilities where they not only process their own lots but also educate other farmers in processing techniques, while their Coffee Campus programme provides training in roasting, brewing, and even exporting. They provide countless opportunities for their farming communities by not only teaching and motivating farmers but also hiring local workers at their nurseries and mills, including single mothers and disabled people who would struggle to find employment elsewhere. They also work hard to incorporate sustainable farming methods, rewild forests on their land, and protect local wildlife to promote ecosystem health for coming generations.

To create this lot, the cherries were given a 'kick' by putting them in an anaerobic environment for a short amount of time before continuing processing — not long enough for official fermentation to begin, but long enough that the structure of the sugar within the cherries began to change. This produces more sweetness and body on top of the standard Sidamo natural profile. After this, the coffee was dried normally on raised African-style beds.

Once the correct moisture level was reached, the cherry was bagged, tagged, and stored for a minimum of eight weeks to improve the complexity and intensity of the cup profile. After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, the team applied another round of hand sorting to remove any primary defects. After that, the bags of green coffee were loaded on a truck to take a three- to five-day drive to the Bette Buna dry mill in Gelan, located close to Addis Ababa. Here the green beans underwent another round of cleaning, screening on size and density, and color sorting, and then were bagged a final time, ready to be exported.

We're proud to support Bette Buna and plan to partner with them for many years to come.

Elevation: 2100 Metres Above Sea Level
Varietal: Enat Buna, 74158, 74112
Cup score: 88
Price paid per kg: £10.10
Process: Kickstart Natural