Ethiopia - Musa Aba Lulesa

Clean and refined, lemony acidity lending structure to a profile of peach, dried apricot, lemongrass tea, honey and soft berry notes.

About the Farm

This coffee was sourced from Agaro Town, Jimma, a full-day drive southwest of Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia's capital city. It's produced by a single farmer, Musa Aba Lulesa -- which is a rare feat for Ethiopian coffees.

It's been a few years since the Ethiopian government changed their coffee export rules, affording farmers like Musa Aba Lulesa to sell their coffee. In previous years, all private operations big and small had to sell their coffee through the government-run Ethiopia Commodity Exchange and only cooperatives and unions were exempt. That probably sounds worse than it really was in terms of payments. But an issue presented to the buyer is that ECX coffee was stripped of provenance, save origin, so we never knew where it came from. Farmer Musa Aba Lulesa's coffee, for example, would've just been blended off with other coffees of a similar grade and sold as "Limu Grade 1". All that has changed and he is one of many farmers who have successfully applied for export licenses and are able to sell directly. His farm and wet mill are located near Beshasha, not far from Agaro town, and his coffee planted right around 2100 meters above sea level. Musa Aba Lulesa is one of a few single-farmer lots we were lucky enough to export directly this year.

When Musa’s coffee was sold through the Ethiopian Coffee Exchange (ECX) he made less money. In an effort to empower himself and his family, he found that running as much of the business as possible himself was the best way to get the most income. Musa’s goals are still to produce the best coffees in the world as well as to maintain and add additional washing stations and drying beds to ensure the quality of his coffee.