Peach Fuzz

This coffee comes from Mullugeta Muntasha, and his story is one of the most inspiring in specialty coffee right now. Mullugeta grew up in Bursa, a village in the Arbegona district of Sidama that, until very recently, didn't grow coffee at all. As a young man he left home and became a truck driver in the neighboring Arsi region, hauling coffee cherry from smallholder collection points to private washing stations. Later he became a collector himself, supplying cherry to the central market. In other words, he spent years learning coffee from the ground up—not by growing it, but by moving it, buying it, and understanding how the whole system worked. Then climate change shifted the map. As temperatures rose, coffee became viable at higher elevations, and farmers in Bursa (with help from the local agricultural office) started planting trees. In 2021, Mullugeta came home. He established his own drying station right next to his farm and named it Dawencho. It processes cherry from his own land as well as roughly 600 neighboring outgrowers spread across elevations of 2,150 to 2,400 MASL. Here's where the story gets crazy. That same year, 2021, his very first harvest, Mullugeta placed 2nd in the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence with the Dawencho farmer group lot, and 6th under his own name. In 2022, four of the top ten Cup of Excellence winners were processed at Dawencho, including the #1 lot, which came from Mullugeta's brother-in-law Legesse Botola. In a country with hundreds of thousands of coffee producers, this is an almost impossible run. The 74158 varietal is a JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) selection—one of the specific cultivars developed to bring out the delicate, fruit-forward character Ethiopian coffee is famous for. For this natural lot, ripe cherries are hand-picked, floated to remove defects, then spread on traditional raised African beds to slowly dry in the sun for around three weeks. The whole fruit stays intact the entire time, letting sugars and flavors migrate deep into the seed. It's slow, meticulous work—and it's the reason this cup tastes the way it does. Mullugeta's coffees have been carried by some of the most respected roasters in the U.S. and Europe including Onyx, PT's, Luna, Black & White, September—and we're stoked to be able to share this lot from a truly special producer with you. Sourced through our friends at Crop to Cup.