Core - Brunswick

"Over the last few seasons, Zukuka Bora has built a name for themselves with their experimental processing methods. They’re the only ones making honey and natural processed coffees in Uganda, and they’ve been working with extended oxygen deprived fermentation to add value to the farmer’s coffee. Their 2021 harvest produced a coffee that got the highest price in the ‘Pearl of Africa’ auction! Commonfolk’s own roastery team has been helping them run experiments using various brewers yeasts, with particular success using the yeast used to make champagne. This year, they’re even experimenting with natural fermentations mixed with local fruits like pineapple and passionfruit. Can you imagine drinking coffee that tastes like pineapple and passionfruit?"

"Arsosala is a washing station founded in 2015 that currently serves about 1,200 smallholder producers in the Uraga woreda of Guji. Coffees are picked ripe and depulped the same day, then fermented overnight before being washed clean and dried on raised beds. It typically takes the coffee 8–15 days to dry under sun and 15–20 days to dry when there are cloudy skies.

Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.

The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult. We do, however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing stations every year, through our export partners and their connections with mills and washing stations."

Producer - 1,200 Local farmers contributing to Arsosala Washing Station

Origin - Guji, Ethiopia

Roast date - 07/12/2024

Variety - Heirloom

Process - Honey

Flavour notes - grape, lemon, cherry cola, toffee, peach iced tea, white flowers, milk chocolate

"This coffee brought us great joy when we cupped it. It was one sip in, and we decided to buy some, and you better believe you’ll be seeing this year after year from now. We’ve roasted this coffee with a focus on maintaining the supremely clean character this has for a naturally processed coffee. We’ve kept it light, swift, and if we’ve done it right, you’ll get to experience the full spectrum of crisp florals and jammy fruit sweetness this great coffee has to offer.



From our import partner Osito:
Sookoo Coffee is perhaps the most foundational relationship of Osito's in Ethiopia, which, generally, is one of our greatest countries of focus. We have been working with Sookoo's founder, Ture Waji, since our earliest days of sourcing in Ethiopia. Ture and his brother, Assefa, founded the company (legally, Dambi Uddo Agro Industry) in late 2018/early 2019. In that same harvest, Osito delivered to Dambi Uddo their very first registered purchase contract. Sookoo Coffee is located in Odo Shakiso within the Oromia Region and Guji Zone of Ethiopia and produces both naturally processed and washed coffees with cherry sourced from the surrounding kebeles. Lots are typically named for the kebele from which the cherry comes (e.g. Shoondhisa or Bookkisa).

Most of the cherry being delivered are one of two varieties; Gibirinna 74110 and Serto 74112. Both of these are from the Metu Bishari selections made in the forest of the same name in the Illubabor Zone by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) in 1974. They were selected for their resistance to Coffee Berry Disease (CBD {no, not THAT CBD...}). Now, they are some of the most propagated varieties in Ethiopia.

The cherries are all dried at a centralized location on raised beds at an elevation of 2173 masl for around 15-20 days in very thin layers. They are moved and rotated frequently to ensure even and precise drying. The net results of all the effort are some of the most vibrant and pristinely clean coffees we buy. Unlike many naturals, they present with high florality and acid with very little booziness. They are often described as "Ethiopia first, natural processing second." "

Producer - Local farmers from Bookkisa Kebele

Origin - Guji, Ethiopia

Roast date - 07/10/2024

Variety - Gibirinna 74110 & Serto 74112

Process - Natural

Flavour notes - red grape, green apple, negroni, peach candy, umeshu, kiwi, rhubarb



Recipes