Coffee Description
Our 2019 Good Food Award Winning Ethiopia Guji is back! This organic coffee — Banti Nenga Hambela Wamena — is a decadent fruit bomb that easily scores among the highest quality we've ever sourced. At our cupping table, we picked up on blackberry soda, candied lavender, white peach, and an explosion of tropical fruit. This shade-grown, natural-processed African coffee from the Banti Nenga village of Guji is an exclusive microlot that won't last long, so don't wait to enjoy!
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light/Medium
Variety
Process
Natural
Elevation
6,900ft masl
Region
Guji zone
About Aklilu Kassa & Biniam Aklilu Kassa of Ethiopia
Ethiopia Guji Banti Nenga Hambela Wamena comes from Aklilu, a fourth-generation coffee professional in Ethiopia for whom coffee isn't just an afterthought. His grandfather received a grant of 500 hectares in Guji decades ago, during the reign of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie. Eight wives and countless children resulted in that land being split, and split again down family lines. Aklilu's father made history in Guji by founding the very first privately-owned washing station in the
area, after years working as a cherry collections agent. This first washing station was established in 1995 (1987 by the Ethiopian calendar) and went by the name of Kassa Chirressa. Aklilu, then 28, went to work for his father, who still operates the mill. At that time, Guji, along with Yirgacheffe, Kochere, and dozens of other now-distinct district, was known as Sidama coffee. "All my brothers and sisters worked at the washing station with me."
Every year new challenges appeared with metronomic regularity: without roads, the workers had to resort to transporting
coffee on the backs of mules. Over 4-5 years, the siblings and the staff at Kassa Chirressa and Aklilu's first washing station, Hegar Mariam, physically brought rocks from various parts of Guji to build their own road, and eventually were able to bring
trucks in to the remote washing stations to transport the cherries to ECX warehouses without risking the coffee's integrity.
Guji zone, Ethiopia
Drink Coffee Do Stuff
DRINK COFFEE DO STUFF is a specialty coffee roastery in Truckee, CA, conceived at 12,000 ft on the Saas-Fee glacier of the Swiss Alps. The vision for DCDS is rooted in the professional snowboarding career of founder Nick Visconti, who traveled the world crushing the snowboarding circuit and drinking coffee from Switzerland to Patagonia. This roving lifestyle birthed an intentional roasting company centered on the intersection of extraordinary coffee and extraordinary life.
Founded in 2017 in Visconti's hometown of Truckee, DCDS is distinguished by its focus on 'altitude coffee'—coffee grown on hill and mountain slopes throughout the equatorial zone and roasted at 6000 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains—which results in a sweeter, more subtle cup. Relationships matter too at DCDS, not just because Visconti marks his friendships in coffee cups and boards, but because they are the foundation of a life lived well.
We all have the ability to live our own versions of an extraordinary life, and 2019 Good Food Award-winner DCDS celebrates this truth. As Visconti says, "We wear our hats backwards, live our lives forwards, and ride our boards downwards!"
