Legacy Series, Ethiopia - Musa Aba Lulesa
ORIGINALLY RELEASED
April 2022
HIGHLIGHTS
Legacy Series: Spotlights family-owned farms
Origin: Ethiopia - Beshasha, Agaro
Available as a Light or Medium roast
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
In the light roasts, expect delicate stone fruit aromas with a lemon-like acidity — a bright and fun cup that zaps your tongue up front (a good zap! like your first sip of fresh-squeezed lemonade). In the medium roasts, I’ll roast out most of the lemon-like acidity in favor of sweeter berry and chocolate flavors — for lack of a better phrase, more bittersweet “coffee flavors.” :) In the dark roasts (limited availability - roasting day 6/17/22) expect a BIG roasty, toasty, dark chocolate cup with the heaviest body and mouthfeel of the 3 roast profiles.
ORIGIN STORY
Our LEGACY SERIES highlights coffees produced in family-owned farms and this one comes from farmer Musa Aba Lulesa in Ethiopia. It’s exciting to be featuring coffee from a single-farmer lot in Ethiopia, because it’s only been a few years since the Ethiopian government adjusted their export rules to allow direct coffee sales between farmers and their buyers. Before this change in rules, all private operations had to sell their coffee through the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), a government-run commodities marketplace.
While the ECX has largely been lauded for helping Ethiopian coffee farmers (e.g., by granting them access to customers, pricing transparency, and timely distribution of funds), it still currently has a “one size fits all” approach to the coffee sector. This poses a problem as there are big differences between commercial coffee and specialty coffee. Traceability (and by traceability, we mean tracing a single bean to its specific place of origin) has historically been an issue.
Years ago (if I had been roasting coffee then), I would’ve never been able to tell Musa Aba Lulesa’s story. When Musa’s beans were sold on and through the ECX, they likely would have been combined in a lot or blended off with other Ethiopian coffees of a similar grade or similar type. While I would have been able to confidently say the beans were Ethiopian, I would not have had a chance to shine the spotlight on Musa, no matter how immaculately produced or tasty his beans were. That’s one of the reasons why I’m so excited to introduce you to Musa’s beans and share their origin story today. :)
Musa’s farm and wet mill are in Beshasha, close to Agaro town. Musa’s father owned a ~80-hectare farm, and he gave 2 of those hectares to Musa and his brother so they could start their own business. Since then, Musa has grown his farm to 44 hectares. In 2016, he left the ECX after assessing that he’d make more money selling his product directly (even if that meant he had to take on more entrepreneurial risk). When Musa’s not planting, taking care of, or meticulously hand-picking coffee cherries, he also farms avocados and keeps honeybees to generate additional income for his family. His bet to leave the ECX paid off – with the income he’s earned selling coffee directly, Musa has earned enough income to re-invest into farm renovations, nursery improvements, and equipment upgrades.
MORE ABOUT THE LEGACY SERIES
Our Legacy Series shines a light on coffee from family-owned farms. Beans featured in this series come from family farms that have been passed down for generations, and others that may just be getting started. With each roast, we feature one farm/one family at a time, giving each the spotlight they deserve. Growing coffee takes tremendous skill, physical strength, mental fortitude, and just the right amount of luck. Layer on top of that: high production costs and volatile market prices, thin (or negative) margins in a global supply chain that has traditionally never prioritized its growers, and the pressure of providing for your family. The Legacy Series is about passion, hard work, resilience, and grit. True legacies aren’t born, they’re cultivated.
