Country: Ethiopia
Region: Sidamo, Bensa zone
Washing station: Bona Zuria
Producers: smallholders delivering to the station
Altitude: 2000–2330 MASL
Variety: JARC varieties, local landraces
Grade: G1
Processing: Carbonic Maceration
Flavor notes: jasmine, orange zest, grape
A bright, intense Sidamo from one of Ethiopia's newest high-altitude coffee areas, made with carbonic maceration — a method borrowed from winemaking. In the cup: delicate jasmine, fresh orange zest and juicy grape.
Bona Zuria sits in the Bensa zone of Sidamo, on the same highland as the well-known Bombe. At 2,000–2,330 m it was long too high for coffee; a warming climate has changed that, and the plantations here are only about ten years old. Young trees in their prime give a bright, floral cup that can stand alongside the best of Yirgacheffe.
Smallholders farm around 5 hectares each, growing coffee between food crops and using almost no fertilisers or pesticides. Every farmer keeps their own mix of local landraces, and blended together at the station they create Sidamo's signature layered complexity.
Hand-picked cherries are sorted again at intake, then sealed whole in airtight containers, where they ferment in a carbon-dioxide-rich environment for several days. This changes which microbes lead the fermentation — and with them, the flavour. Afterwards the cherries are washed in clean water and dried on raised beds, raked regularly for even drying.
