Suke Quto
Region:
Guji, Ethiopia
Washing station:
Suke Quto
Varieties: Kurume, Welicho
Altitude:1800 – 2200 m
Processes:Washed, Natural, Pulped Natural
Certifications: Organic, Rainforest Alliance
Common cupping notes:
Floral ,Lemon ,Peach
Producer:
Tesfaye Bekele
Tesfaye’s story
Ato Tesfaye Bekele is one of the people that put Guji specialty coffee on the map. While the Guji zone was dominated by cattle farmers, he sought new ways to make coffee popular in Guji. “I don’t consider myself to be a coffee farmer, because coffee is everything to me. All my time and energy are placed into the beans that I harvest and process.” Tesfaye Bekele, the founder of Suke Quto Farm, explains.
“I come from a coffee-producing family, so during my childhood, I started to work with coffee early on”, Tesfaye continues, “At first, coffee did not have my interest. The labor was hard, and the days were long. But after several years of study and other work I returned to my home in the Shakisso woreda, Guji. I found myself in coffee again”.
Suke Quto Washing Station
At the Suke Quto Washing Station, the washed coffees are pulped with an Agared machine. This is a pulper that has no mucilage remover. The coffee beans are fermented for about 35- 48 hours (depending on the current weather) in fermentation tanks. There are three lagoons to store the wastewater. Suke’s natural coffees are dried between 9 and 15 days on elevated beds.
Tesfaye focusses on environmentally friendly coffee and on the economic growth of the community. In other words, people should get a living income from sustainable coffee production. Tesfaye also initiated a community project that aims to renew local schools. With a handful of dedicated coffee roasters, Tesfaye has built a new school building in the neighboring village Kurume.
Together with Haile Gebre, from Shakisso Farm, Tesfaye is one of the innovative forces that shaped the success of Guji coffee.
