Our second coffee from Nizamu Abamecha for this season is a honey-processed JARC-variety mix. 
 
Filter coffee:
Rich and velvety cup with notes of blueberry, honeydew, black tea, and brown sugar.
 
Espresso:
Plum, red grape, almond, and honey. Sugary sweetness with a long bergamot aftertaste.
 
Cappuccino/Flat white:
Sweet and nougat-like with a hint of ripe fruit.
 
The Producer:
Our relationship with Nizamu started on our trip to Ethiopia in early 2020. The goal of the trip was to reach out to independent producers to find outstanding coffee and form direct and transparent long-term relationships.
 
Like many people in this famous coffee region, Nizamu comes from a long line of small-holder coffee farmers and inherited his farm from his grandfather. 
As coffee is an indigenous plant in Ethiopia and grows in the wild, most farmers have some coffee trees growing on their land. Thus, the farms may not have explicitly been coffee farms but regular farms with some coffee trees growing, among other plants. 
 
The standard for Ethiopian coffee markets has long been cooperatives formed by multiple (sometimes hundreds) small-holder farmers that run coffee processing facilities through democratically elected representatives. As farmers join coffee cooperatives, they get training and education on how to prune and care for the coffee plants, and especially on picking the cherries for best results. However, as many cooperatives have hundreds of small-holder farmers bringing their cherries to the station, transparency and especially traceability of the coffee are not easy or even possible.
 
Before becoming an independent coffee producer, Nizamu was the chairman of a famous cooperative called Duromina, with which we have worked multiple times in the past. After the laws of exporting coffee in Ethiopia changed, he resigned from his position and started working independently, as he wanted to have more control over his coffee.