| Country | Ethiopia |
|---|---|
| Farm | Bombe |
| Varietal | Arabica Heirloom |
| Processing | Natural |
| Crop | February 2024 |
| Flavour | Juicy & Exotic |
Extra
Single-origin espresso that we want to catapult you into coffee heaven with. In a bag with the Extra logo, you will always find espresso that is exceptionally flavorful and so juicy that it surprises beginners in specialty coffee. But for connoisseurs, it's an experience you shouldn't miss out on.
At Extra, you'll find a different espresso every time, it's always single-origin, meaning from a single farm. We roast it lightly to highlight its sweetness and acidity. We recommend preparing it in high-quality espresso machines, which can bring out the best in it.
Espresso Coffee Family
Which coffee is currently in Extra?
Ethiopia Bombe - natural processed lot from Daye Bensa's processing station Bombe based in the district of Bensa.
How does it taste?
We tasted dozens of samples from this year harvest in Addis Ababa and dry-processed lots from Daye Bensa were the clear winner in terms of both points and taste.
Jarda, who selected the coffee on the spot, particularly praised the clearly defined fruity flavors and sparkling acidity that most Ethiopian naturals have lacked in recent years. Bombe has intense floral aromatics. In the cup expect notes of dried fruits, honey and gingerbread.
About the farm and exporter
Bombe is one of 71 processing stations in Ethiopia owned by exporting company Daye Bensa. Owned by brothers Asefa and Mulugeta Dukamo and currently run primarily by Asefa's son Kenean, this family business produces, in our opinion, the best natural coffees in Ethiopia. Second place at the Cup of Excellence in 2022 is a proof of this.
This March, we had the opportunity to taste and purchase three different microlots from three different stations at the Daye Bensa headquarters in Addis Ababa. Paradoxically, all this year's selected coffees from Ethiopia, including several lots from Heleanna Georgalis, come from the same region - Bensa.
Variety
"Ethiopian heirloom varieties" is a general term that we commonly use to refer to coffee originating from Ethiopia (in total, the number of Arabica coffee varieties is estimated at 2,500 in Ethiopia). It includes two classifications: hybrid varieties developed at the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) and regional varieties mostly named after the village where they are grown. JARC varieties were developed to improve the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder producers and strengthen the country's coffee industry.
There are approximately 40+ JARC varieties consisting mostly of heirloom selections and a handful of hybrids. E.g. hybrid variety 74158, developed at JARC and grown around the village of Bombe, is one of the most widely used varieties in the region. In most cases, hybrid varieties can be distinguished from the heirloom by the larger bean size, but with Bombe, it is actually on contrary, since our coffee has extremely small screen size.
Processing
The natural process at the Bombe station is the same as everywhere else in Ethiopia. Freshly picked and delivered cherries from small producers around the station are first immersed in a water tank to sort out cherries of lower density (i.e. unripe ones). They are then moved to African beds, where they are dried until they reach approx. 12% moisture. During this time, they are constantly manually raked to ensure that the drying is as homogeneous as possible.
The main advantage of this process in Ethiopia, compared to other coffee growing countries, is the large number of farm workers who constantly take care of the coffee and pick defective or unripe cherries during the whole process. The dried cherries are packed in Grain Pro plastic bags and taken to a dry mill in the capital, Addis Abeba.
