Lionworks • Ethiopia Anaerobic Natural • Guji Megadu

What we're tasting: Bananananananas, Red Berries, Black Tea 

Origin: Ethiopia, Guji, Megadu
Exporter: Bette Buna 
Varietal: 74112,74110, Wild Guji Megadu
Altitude: 2000-2200
Process: Anaerobic Natural

ROAST LEVEL: Light / Medium

This one shines as Espresso, Aeropress and Stove Top, but it's tasting great as a filter too

About the producer

Bette Buna is an equal opportunity employer, which is rare in a culture that doesn't typically provide meaningful work for differently abled or disabled people. Their nursery employs people with disabilities (particularly deaf people), families of people with disabilities, as well as other largely disenfranchised groups such as single mothers who struggle to find work, and especially work that accommodates childcare for working mothers in an agrarian society.

This lot comes from Gash Sentayehu, who farms alongside his neighbour Gash Syoum in Guji.

The coffee is great, but what stands out more is how they run their farms. There’s a real level of care and respect for the people working with them, something that isn’t always a given in more remote coffee growing regions where conditions can be tough. It shows in the way they work, and in the consistency of what they produce.

Over the past few years, they’ve also developed their approach to processing. Starting with anaerobic methods, they’ve gradually refined and scaled it, taking full ownership of the process themselves.

Now they’re producing natural anaerobic lots that are clean, expressive, and getting better year on year. It’s a strong example of what happens when good process is built on solid values.

The coffee is fermented anaerobically in sealed containers for 96hrs, then is dried on raised African-style beds. After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, there was another round of hand sorting by the milling team to remove any defects. 

About the name

An old iron foundry on Wallis Road that somehow made it through the war, the wrecking balls, and everything else Hackney’s thrown at it. It’s still standing, still in use, just doing something different now. Artists, makers, small independents, all packed into a space that was built for industry but never stopped being about people working side by side.

That’s why the name felt right for this one. Lion Works felt like the closest thing we had to that. Different place, same idea. Good things built properly, by people who give a shit.