Bona Ayele
ETHIOPIA
Actually, the coffee’s full name is Bona Qeqe Zuria Ayele. The etymology behind the name: Bona Qeqe (or Bona Kike) is a small town in the Bona Zuria district of Sidama region, and Ayele Tulu is the name of the owner of the washing station responsible for processing our coffee. In terms of its taste profile, it is more like a wet-processed coffee, but it is certainly a semi-dry (honey) batch. This processing method, which is not yet widespread in Ethiopia and does not even exist according to official documents, has begun its conquest in the last few years. Whether it will be successful in the long term is up to you, dear coffee lovers.
Ethiopia is the home of extraordinary coffees. Ethiopian coffee is instantly recognizable even in blind cuppings due to its distinctive flavour made up of several hundreds of indigenous arabica varietals grown wild in the various micro-climates of the country. 95% of Ethiopia’s 300 000 tonnes of coffee export is supplied by more than a million small, independent farmers. The rest is grown by an increasing number of private and state-owned plantations. Recently the Ethiopian government began reforming the export system to open the market and allow exporters and bigger farms (estates) to export their own coffee with one condition: the selling price must always be higher than that which would have been fixed by the ECX (Ethiopian Commodity Exchange) for a comparable quality of coffee. Several farms are currently in the process of applying for export licenses and have begun to detach themselves from the washing stations by processing and selling their own coffee.