Ethiopia
Yirgacheffe
Smallholder producers; Bette Buna
Smallholder farms
JARC Varieties, Enat Buna
Natural
November–January
Caramel, Papaya, Stone Fruit, Honey
2025 meters
N/A
60 kg w/ GrainPro
SOLD OUT
Bette Buna is a vertically integrated coffee company founded in 2020 by husband and wife Dawit and Hester. Their coffee journey began following the passing of Dawit’s grandfather, who farmed coffee with his wife, Emame, in Taferi Kela, Sidama for nearly a century. Dawit and Hester took over operations at the family farm committed to the mission of creating equal opportunities for coffee communities through the production of outstanding coffee. Today, Bette Buna operates farms in the coffee growing regions of Guji, Yirgacheffe, Sidama, and Bench Maji, as well as sourcing coffee from allied farmers throughout these regions.
This coffee was grown by 120 outgrower contributors living in the Idido woreda. Cherries are delivered to Bette Buna’s own Idido washing station where processing begins on the same day as harvesting the cherries.
This coffee underwent Natural processing.
As the coffee industry continues to grow in Ethiopia, the country’s historic growing areas don’t always match up with the current-day maps defining Ethiopia’s geography. Our goal is to provide the clearest and most accurate information about the coffees that we offer, and we’re proud to provide the most specific location information we have for these coffees. Learn more about Ethiopia’s coffee growing regions on our blog.
Region: SNNPR
Zone: Gedeo
Woreda: Idido
Kebele: –
ECX Growing Area: Yirgacheffe
Literally translated as “Land of Many Springs,” Yirgacheffe has the ideal topography, elevation, and water sources to produce and process exceptional coffees. Yirgacheffe is one of the woredas, a district like a municipality or county that includes many towns, of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia. Yirgacheffe is part of the Gedeo Zone of SNNPR and the Yirgacheffe woreda is bordered to the south by Kochere, to the west by Oromia Zone, to the north by Wenago, to the east by Bule, and to the southeast by Gedeb. The Yirgacheffe woreda is 409km from Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa and has a population of almost 200,000 people, less than 10% of whom live in cities.
Coffee farmers in Yirgacheffe are typically multi-generational, small-scale landholders, sometimes with only a few acres of land. Most coffees in Yirgacheffe are sold as cherry to centralized washing stations that help further separate flavor profiles. Many farmers also grow the subsistence crop enset ventricosum, also known as false banana.
Yirgacheffe is considered by many to be the birthplace of coffee and the coffee trees grown in the region are a naturally occurring mix of heirloom varietals cultivated among other species in coffee gardens and coffee forests. Washed Coffee was introduced to Ethiopia in the 1970’s, and Yirgacheffe was the location of the first wet processing mill.
The climate in Yirgacheffe is warm and temperate. In the winter, there is much less rainfall than the summer, with an annual average of 1525mm and a difference of 246mm of precipitation between the wettest and driest months. The average temperature across Yirgacheffe is 18.4 degrees Celsius.
