Ethiopia | Guji Megadu

The farm: 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 Tefari 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 is a single farm lot sourced from Bette Buna’s farm in the Megadu woreda of Ethiopia’s Guji zone. The farm covers 220 hectares of land, and is divided into plots of semi-forest and wild forest with coffee planted throughout. Employees at the farm are a mixture of full-time and seasonal employees totaling 850 people who are responsible for harvesting, sorting, and processing each lot. In addition to providing a living wage for the employees, Bette Buna also provides weekly transportation to the relatively remote farm, housing, meals, and satellite education for employee’s children who travel with their parents to the farm during the busy season. 

The coffee: This coffee underwent Natural Anaerobic processing. The coffee cherries are floated and washed with fresh water but are not depulped, allowing the full fruit to remain intact. They are then transferred into a tank fitted with an air valve. Inside the sealed tank, fermentation begins naturally with the yeasts and microorganisms present on the cherries. As the process develops, oxygen is gradually expelled, creating an anaerobic environment ideal for controlled fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the cherries are rinsed again with clean water and moved to the solar dryer. Drying begins on a ceramic patio and is completed on layered beds within the solar dryer, allowing for slow, even moisture reduction and preserving the coffee’s unique characteristics. 

We're tasting cantaloupe, agave, kiwi. 

Country: Ethiopia Region: Guji Variety: Ethiopian landraces Process: Natural Anaerobic

This Guji Megadu from producer Bette Buna showcases the experimental potential of natural anaerobic processing. The combination of Ethiopia's distinctive Ethiopian landraces with controlled fermentation creates a profile that Quills Coffee has captured as cantaloupe, agave, and kiwi—a bright, fruit-forward expression. Natural-processed coffees tend to emphasize fruit character, and anaerobic fermentation can intensify and clarify those notes. This lot invites exploration of how processing innovation reveals the inherent complexity in heirloom Ethiopian varieties.