Coffee Description
Coming in at 91 points from Coffee Review, our newest single origin release, Ethiopia Sidama Basha Bekele, is a very special coffee to us. Yes, it has fragrant flavor notes of fruit punch and brown sugar, but it also represents a new benchmark in our coffee roasting excellence as our second 90+ scoring coffee of the year. Don’t miss out on this honest-to-goodness incredible certified organic, natural processed coffee from Ethiopia.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light/Medium
Roast Level according to Crema
Refers to the roast level in comparison with all the coffees on Crema.co.
Medium
Process
Natural
Elevation
6,000 masl
Region
Sidama
About Basha Bekele of Ethiopia
On Basha Bekele's coffee farm in the Bombe Village of the Bensa District, red cherries are harvested by hand-picking. This is very labor intensive, and around 86 seasonal and daily laborers are employed for selective harvesting, transporting, sorting and drying. Pickers many times have to return to the same tree multiple times as coffee cherry doesn’t ripen all at the same time. Carefully harvested cherries are then are loaded into bags or baskets and taken to the drying location. The cherries are spread out in thin layers to dry in the sun. Only special raised drying beds or tables, which are made out of wood posts, are used and covered in bamboo mat. In order to ensure even drying and to avoid mold, fermentation or rotting, the cherries are turned 6 times per day. It could take 15 – 21 days for specific lots to reach optimum moisture content depending on the sun access and temperature. This is determined by observing brightness of the skin and cracking sample dried cherries by teeth. When the drying is complete, the dried cherries are loaded into poly bags and stored in a temporary warehouse. They are then ultimately transported to the dry mill and warehouse located at Daye Town. At that point the dried cherry is removed and a phase of pre-cleaning is done by hand before the coffee is loaded into bags for transportation to Addis Ababa for further export preparation at the final dry mill.
Sidama, Ethiopia
Our coffee expert
Aubrey Mills
6+ years experience as Coffee Taster, Wholesale Director, barista and Coffee Quality Director.
Aubrey Mills is steeped in coffee. Not literally, of course, but since 2013, she’s been preparing and tasting coffee for a career. Initially as a barista at the Portland, OR Insomnia Coffee and Dapper & Wise, her job was to stay on top of quality and help customers find coffees they were excited about. This involved tasting all the coffees they’d be serving that day, dialing in espresso or approve a drip recipe.
She soon became Director of Wholesale at Dapper & Wise, where she regularly cupped at quality control cuppings with the team, hosted cuppings for the public and trained wholesale partners on proper coffee preparation. In the role of helping to maintain Dapper & Wise’s menu of diverse flavor profiles, roast levels and processing methods, Aubrey also visited coffee producing countries. She says, “Traveling to origin and experiencing the beginning of the coffee journey has given me greater perspective for how many variables can impact flavor in the final cup.”
Along with her on-point palate and killer coffee know-how, Aubrey brings creativity, sparkle and grace to everything she does, actively looking for opportunities to showcase the value of specialty coffee and address sustainability issues in the industry.
had this to say:
Aubrey Mills is steeped in coffee. Not literally, of course, but since 2013, she’s been preparing and tasting coffee for a career. Initially as a barista at the Portland, OR Insomnia Coffee and Dapper & Wise, her job was to stay on top of quality and help customers find coffees they were excited about. This involved tasting all the coffees they’d be serving that day, dialing in espresso or approve a drip recipe. She soon became Director of Wholesale at Dapper & Wise, where she regularly cupped at quality control cuppings with the team, hosted cuppings for the public and trained wholesale partners on proper coffee preparation. In the role of helping to maintain Dapper & Wise’s menu of diverse flavor profiles, roast levels and processing methods, Aubrey also visited coffee producing countries. She says, “Traveling to origin and experiencing the beginning of the coffee journey has given me greater perspective for how many variables can impact flavor in the final cup.” Along with her on-point palate and killer coffee know-how, Aubrey brings creativity, sparkle and grace to everything she does, actively looking for opportunities to showcase the value of specialty coffee and address sustainability issues in the industry.
"This coffee is assertively juicy but balanced. I taste strawberry candy, lemonade and vanilla pudding. A long, dry finish with a creamy body, this coffee needs no milk. "
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!"
