Led Zebulon

Ethiopia is widely recognized as the birthplace of coffee. The coffee plant, specifically Coffea arabica, originates from the region of Kaffa in Ethiopia. According to legend, a goat herder named Kaldi discovered coffee in the 9th century after noticing his goats became energetic after eating the berries from a certain shrub. 

We decided to name our favorite light roast, after the best rock & roll band ever. As with most Ethiopian coffees, this has flavor notes of milk chocolate, fresh jasmine, & cocoa, with a hint of mild cooked nectarine. It makes a sweet and smooth cup of hot coffee and we also cold brew and keg this one in our store and serve it on nitro to add a creamy texture and which turns this one up to "11". 

Coffee Geek Info:

• Flavor Profile  Milk Chocolate, fresh jasmine, & cocoa, with a hint of mild cooked nectarine
• Roast Level  light
• Grower  Smallholder farms organized around Fahem General Trading PLC
• Altitude  1900 - 2200 masl (meters above sea level)
• Variety  Heirloom Ethiopian Varieties
• Soil  Natural
• Region  Guji
• Process  Natural
• Harvest  November - January

History:

Guji is a beautifully forested area in southern Ethiopia. Before the early 2000's, this region was considered part of Sidama, but has since become its own region. The people of Guji grow coffee gardens at very high altitudes in the rich red soil of the highlands, setting this coffee's profile apart from neighboring regions. These smallholders deliver their coffee to washing stations to be sorted and processed together, developing flavors of fruits, deep chocolate, and light florals.

The Buku washing station is located in Guji, Ethiopia. Coffees from this station are delivered by local farmers daily, purchased in cherry, and processed accordingly.

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.

Typically, farmers in this region don't have access to and therefore do not utilize fertilizers or pesticides in the production of coffee.