Ethiopia | Guji Buku | Heirloom Natural Grade 1

This lot comes from Buku Sayisa, known locally as Blessed Valley, in the Hambela woreda of Guji. Around 600 smallholders deliver cherry from farms between 2,000 and 2,300 metres above sea level. Farmers here intercrop coffee with maize, barley, wheat and beans in fertile sandy loam, growing indigenous varieties suited to the region. The station dries the whole cherry on raised African beds for 10 to 20 days. The lot cupped at 86.75 points.

Guji is a zone in the Oromia region of southern Ethiopia and home to the Oromo people, who have lived here for more than 500 years. Coffee runs deep in Oromo culture; legend says the first coffee plant grew from the tears of the sky god Waaqa. High elevation, volcanic soil and varied microclimates give Guji naturals dense fruit and heavy sweetness, and the zone now ranks alongside Yirgacheffe and Sidama.

Farmers here grow Kurume and Dega, landrace varieties native to the southern Ethiopian highlands. Landraces developed from wild coffee populations and adapted to local soil, altitude and rainfall over generations.

At Buku's altitude these varieties mature slowly. The beans pack in sugar, and natural processing on raised beds concentrates the fruit further.

In this cup you get plum, dark berries and a lingering dark chocolate finish. Roasted for espresso, it pulls a syrupy, fruit-forward shot and holds its own through milk.