Basha Bekele

Description

Basha Bekele is one of the youngest and most driven coffee producers in the Bensa district of Sidama. He took on his farm in Kokose village in 2021 and has steadily grown across the surrounding highlands. In 2024 his coffee won the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence, and in 2025 it took Top of the Harvest, both from his own lots in nearby Gonjobe. We have worked with him for three years, since before those wins.

Kokose sits between 2350 and 2500 metres on rich nitisol soils. The cherries are floated, sorted by hand, and dried slowly on raised beds for around a month before hulling at Basha's own mill. This natural lot of indigenous heirloom, 74158 and 74112, comes through with citrus zest, white blossom, nectarine, mango, and forest berries.

Text from Mazelab's listing.