Demeka Becha - Ethiopia

Demeka Becha site is situated at the top of a hill in Becha village in Bona Zuria, which is ideal for airflow along the drying beds. The Demeka Becha site is owned and operated by the family of Ayele Tulu, his wife Genet Haile Endeshow, and their son, Tsegab Ayele.
They buy cherries from nearby communities including Dilla Suke, Demeka, Goacho, Becha, and Bashiro Dale—close to 10,000 producers are situated in the areas surrounding the washing station. Producers bring their cherries to be weighed on the blue scale, logged in the book by Alemu Gobaro (general manager). Once accepted, cherries are floated for density sorting before being dumped into the cement hopper to begin the journey through the 4-disk Agard pulper and into fermentation tanks and cement washing channels. There are 10 tanks for density grades 1 and 2, and 2 tanks for lower-density coffee.

Following fermentation and washing, the parchment coffee is carried by hand to the drying beds where laborers spread it out to the depth of a fingertip and keep it turning until it is dried and moved to the locked storehouse to await trucking to Addis Ababa where they are dry milled before export.

This year we booked Lot 90/02 from Demeka Becha. The lot carries notes of stone fruit such as peach and apricot as well as honeysuckle. The lively acidity helps highlight the floral notes which may remind you of bergamot, lavender, or grapefruit-peel depending on your mood.