Suke Quto

Up until fairly recently (in coffee growing timescales), all the coffee at Suke Quto was processed using the Ethiopian traditional washed and traditional natural methods. This started to change after Tesfaye Bekele’s visit to Colombia in 2014. Tesfaye was invited to Colombia by Menno Simmons from Trabocca (the importer we work with for coffees from Ethiopia and Kenya). The trip was an opportunity for Tesfaye to learn more about the regional diversity in Colombia and exchange knowledge with coffee growers; he returned from the visit brimming with ideas about coffee farming and processing methods. Tesfaye was particularly interested in the honey process method, whereby the skin and mucilage of the cherry is removed by a depulper and the remaining parchment is left to sun dry. The first trial did not go well. Tesfaye realised his mistake, the layers of coffee drying on the beds were too thick and the results were inconsistent. He persevered the following crop, spreading the coffee in a thinner layer and making sure to stir and turn the coffee regularly, and the result was very promising. So promising in fact, that the following year, Tesfaye felt confident to experiment with a bigger lot and commit longer term to the process. We have been buying Tesfaye’s honey process coffee since 2020. We buy a small lot, some thirty bags, and reserve it for the period in between one harvest and the next – we find the coffee exceptionally sweet and floral, and a nice interlude before the sparkly acidity of the next arrival of Suke Quto’s traditional washed coffee.