Melese Wolde’s farm, Shantawane, developed a reputation for quality after twice winning a major importer competition. Private farms in Ethiopia like Melese’s are rare in Ethiopia. This is a consequence of how populous the country is, which means there are not many places to have a farm large enough to fill an entire container or produce an export-size volume of coffee.

Melese describes himself as a farmer through and through, and would have gladly continued to sell his coffee cherry to private washing stations, as many Ethiopia smallholders do. But he was granted an export license by the government in 2018.

We don’t often have natural processed coffees on our shelves, but we couldn’t resist the syrupy sweetness and complexity of Melese’s latest offering. And of course, it’s very clean in the cup.