Gobena Bendo

Our Gobena Ethiopia is so floral, sparkly, and silky, displaying all that we love about a classic washed Ethiopia lot. It displays a complex acidity and fruit-forward sweetness with tasting notes of pear guava, green apple, panela, and jasmine. Bottom line: the perfect coffee for lovers of a bright and sparkling Ethiopia profile. Enjoy!

Part of Cafe Imports Single Farmer Project, this coffee was grown by 65 year old coffee producer Gobena Bendo on his 10 hectare farm near Worka town in Yirgacheffe. He utilizes traditional Ethiopian growing practices which is shade-grown and devoid of using any fertilizer, pesticides, or fungicides. Gobena also grows cereal on part of his land and employs two part time workers along with help from his adult children who live nearby.

The Single Farmer Project was created by our friends at Cafe Imports in an effort to support Ethiopian producers with a marketplace for farm-traceable coffees. In 2012, during a turbulent time in Ethiopia’s coffee exporting history, Cafe Import’s Jason Long worked with an established cooperative to export some of the first ever truly traceable lots from Ethiopia. This was the first time a roaster could highlight an individual producer of their Ethiopia coffee lot (whereas before coffees were all sold at a government-run auction and smallholder farmer lots were combined to produce larger lots). The Single Farmer Project was the start of an incredible journey that truly began the movement for traceability in Ethiopia. This project is made possible in conjunction with important export partners supporting and bringing to market individual farmer lots. Samples are sent out to potential buyers, price is negotiated on the farmers’ behalf, and contracts are only accepted when the producer agrees on a sales price and their name is on the contract for each coffee they sell. “Our goals with this project would be to help garner and develop long-term relationships between the producers we are already working with and coffee roasting companies that share in the values of transparency, traceability, and relationship that this program represents,” says Claudia, green-coffee buyer for Cafe Imports.