Unsurprisingly, the best lot we tasted this year comes to us from the Kata Muduga Union Coop Society which is responsible for some of the best known coffees from the region of Jimma – the Duromina, Nano Challa and Yukro stations are all part of this Society. This region has historically been infamous for its low quality production of the Djimma 5 poorly processed natural coffee. In 2010, the development project TechnoServe (funded by Bill and Melinda Gates) helped these coops in remote producing regions to improve the quality of what they produced increasing the price that could be achieved for these coffees – nowadays, they consistently generate some of the highest prices paid to farmers in the country.

Geta Bore is one of the coops that benefitted – it is located in the Metu Bishari forest which provides ample shade coverage for the slow development of the cherries. The coffee trees found in this region include landrace varietals of Kuburi, Bedessa, Yawan and Dalacha along with several improved varietals from the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (74110, 74112, 74140, 74165). The producing group benefits from ongoing agronomy training and business advice from one of the TechnoServe trained team members which has helped them to consistently raise the cup profile of the coffee they produce.