Feature Filter: Odaco | Ethiopia

More about Odaco & Daye Bensa:

This coffee is a micro-lot from the Daye Bensa exporter team, selected from particularly high quality cherry and slowly dried at the Gatta station.  The coffee is named after the Odaco tree, a powerful symbol in the culture of Shantaweve community, Sidama people. Odaco is a popular tree name in Shantawene, Bensa and the community meets under this tree to resolve the conflicts in the area.

The coffee is composed of cherry from small-holder farmers of Shantawene and also from Daye Bensa’s own farm Gatta. Growers contributing to the micro-lot receive bonus payments based on the volume delivered. As soon as the coffee cherry is received it gets sorted by floating and picking out the ripe cherries. These are then dried it on african beds over 13-15 days with one person assigned per each individual bed to rotate the cherries frequently ensuring uniformity of drying.

Traceability is extremely important during the production of micro lots. The record-keeping book is carefully handled and separation of lots is key to guaranteeing the highest level of quality. When the cherries are received they are separated by village, the coffee is then kept separate throughout drying, processing, and storage, with labels stating the delivery dates, farm name, lot number, and more details related to the particular lot. The micro-lot selection happens at multiple stage of the production process, first at cherry delivery and then further at the cupping tables when particularly stand-out lots are kept aside and combined together to create the final micro-lot based on their flavour profile.

Daye Bensa is not only extremely well organised in their record keeping, they are also a very community oriented company. They run an out-growers program that benefits farmers with an off-season payment on top of the harvest fee and have been active in working to improve the farmers’ living situations and standards, with healthcare access, utilities, education and transport infrastructure. Additionally, Daye Bensa are working with the school principals in the villages surrounding the farms, providing basic school materials for the students.

Having enjoyed various washed and natural lots from the Daye Bensa team over the last couple of years we were excited to cup this extra special gem on the pre-ships from the most recent season’s offerings. It really punches above and beyond and we are very excited to finally share it with you all. If you like tropical, floral and very fruit forward coffee definitely jump on this one!

Big thanks to Daye Bensa and Falcon for this coffee and traceability information.