Featured Coffees

Ethiopia - Daye Bensa - Shantawene Village

We’re excited to share our newest coffee from Shantawene, Sidama, Ethiopia!

In 1996, brothers Assefa and Mulugeta Dukamo founded Daye Bensa in Bensa, Sidama. They began exporting coffee internationally in 2006 and have continued working closely with local coffee-growing communities to bring Ethiopian coffees to the world.

This coffee comes from Shantawene village, where Daye Bensa works alongside local coffee growers to produce exceptional coffee. Located in the highlands of Sidama, the area’s high elevations of 1,900–2,400 meters above sea level provide ideal conditions for growing distinctive Ethiopian coffees.

Shantawene gained international recognition in 2020, placing 7th in Ethiopia’s Cup of Excellence among more than 1,400 entries, a wonderful achievement for the local coffee-growing community.

Beyond coffee production, Daye Bensa is looking toward the future by hoping to work with more farmers, particularly encouraging and supporting women farmers. They also aim to collaborate with Hawassa University, giving students opportunities to conduct research that can help improve coffee quality.

For this coffee lot, the ripe coffee cherries are carefully hand-picked and dried whole on raised beds under the shade. This slower drying process allows the cherries to develop gradually while helping preserve the coffee’s quality and character.

We’re happy to share this coffee with you and celebrate the farmers behind every cup. We hope you enjoy getting to know this special coffee from Shantawene as much as we do.

Images from farm and process taken from InterAmerican Coffee.

In the Cup:
Berries, Lavender,‍ ‍Lemon.

This coffee is excellent as a light roast. Perfect for enjoying at home in filter or drip.

Tasting Notes:
 Berries • Lavender • Lemon

Region: Sidama, Ethiopia

Elevation: 1900-2300 masl

Cultivar: Typica

Process: Natural, dried in coffee cherry in the shade on raised beds

Elias and Shady Bayter - Tolima, Huila, & Caldas

In 2010, Martha, Elias, and Shady began growing their own coffee at El Vergel Estate in Tolima, Colombia. The cherries for this coffee come from Tolima, Huila, and Caldas, and are brought to El Vergel Estate for processing. This coffee is part of their innovation series.

The coffee cherries are carefully hand-sorted to select only the ripe ones. They then undergo 24 hours of prefermentation in plastic bags, followed by another 24 hours of fermentation while still whole cherries. After depulping the cherries, the beans are co-fermented for five days in a low-oxygen environment, using their natural mucilage along with yeast and grape-derived flavors. This process helps develop the coffee’s unique flavor profile.

The coffee is then mechanically dried over 10 days. Once processing is complete and the coffee has stabilized, it is sent to Descafecol in Manizales, Colombia, for decaffeination.

At Descafecol, the beans are first steamed to remove their silverskin and open their pores for the next step in the decaffeinaion process. Beans are then soaked in high-mountain spring water before entering extraction tanks, where naturally derived ethyl acetate from sugarcane is used to remove the caffeine.

Throughout the process, temperatures and pressure are carefully controlled and monitored to help preserve the coffee’s natural flavors. The beans are then steamed to remove any remaining ethyl acetate and dried in cooling silos.

The result is a coffee that is 99% caffeine-free, allowing you to enjoy its unique flavors with significantly less caffeine.

Images from farm and process taken from Forest Coffee.

In the Cup:
Layers of juicy grape, mellow honeydew sweetness, and fresh apple brightness.

This coffee is excellent as a light roast. Perfect for enjoying at home in filter or drip.

Tasting Notes:
 Grape • Honeydew Melon • Apple

Region: Colombia

Fresno, Tolima : San Agustín, Huila: Manzanares, Caldas

Elevation: 1750 masl

Cultivar: Castillo, Colombia, Caturra

Process: Honey + Grape coferment and decaffeinated using ethyl acetate (EA) sugarcane process

Directly Sourced from the Bella Vista Community

Mayan Harvest Women’s Group is sourced from 168 family-owned farms located in communities within the municipality of Bella Vista in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia is the director and founder of Mayan Harvest and grew up around coffee in the rural Bella Vista community. She found Mayan Harvest Coffee to process, export, and import coffee. Her work over the last decade focuses on empowering a growing community of women coffee growers towards sustainability. She works with women producers in the community to promote their coffees and improve quality. These efforts allow producers to earn higher prices and reinvest in better agricultural practices and improve the livelihoods for their families.

Tasting Notes: Creamy Chocolate • Brown Sugar • Cinnamon

Region: Chiapas, Mexico

Elevation: 1650 masl

Cultivar: Typica, Bourbon, Caturra

Process: Washed