Marta Alemu

ORIGIN: GEDEB, ETHIOPIA
VARIETY: LANDRACE CULTIVARS
PROCESS: NATURAL
NOTES: CANNED PEACH, DRIED MANGO, CANTALOUPE

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) established in 2008 helped to provide consistent pricing of coffees based off of their grades and quality. The system was designed to build up the “brands” of the regions and reward regions that were producing good quality. However, it reduced the transparency and source of single farmers producing micro-lots of incredible coffee, as they were lumped in with regional production. There have been some changes since then to increase the availability and transparency of coffee, but it is still rare to encounter single-farmer lots most traceability come from mills.

This is a single farmer lot produced by Marta Alemu Kanke. She has a small 6 acre plot of land that she just recently started, after learning how to grow coffee from her father growing up. Ripe cherries are carefully selected, ensuring maximum sweetness and flavour expression of the coffee. The coffee is naturally processed, meaning that the whole cherries are dried evenly on raised beds for up to 20 days. This even fermentation develops a rich, deep and intense fruitiness that is a joy to drink.