ABOUT THE PRODUCER: The producers of this lot of coffee are part of the Shantawene Kebena community, with a couple of local languages spoken (Sidaamu and Amharic). Shantawene is named after the village where the majority of the people who work on the farm, many of them women, are from. The Shantawene village is nestled between the villages of Bombe and the base of the Bombe mountain in the Sidama Region of southern Ethiopia. Coffee plants (both wild and cultivated) flourish in these fertile highlands.
ABOUT THE PROCESS: For this natural process, only perfectly ripe cherries are hand-picked and delivered to the washing station to be carefully sorted. They are floated to make sure only the highest quality cherries are selected. The coffee is spread out on raised beds and dried in the shade until it reaches the ideal moisture level. This usually takes from 14 to 18 days, before being dry-hulled, bagged, and transported to Addis Ababa for export milling before shipment.