About this Coffee
The founder of Suke Quto Farm, Tesfaye Bekele is a pioneer of Guji coffee. Growing up in a coffee producing family, Tesfaye recalls that he had no interest in pursuing coffee. After years away from home studying and working within Natural Resources and Environment Protection for the Ethiopian Government, he was drawn back home to coffee. After the forests of Guji were devastated by large bushfires in the late 90’s, Tesfaye was tasked with the responsibility to rebuild and find innovative solutions to conserve the area. As locals returned home to rebuild their liveli- hoods, Tesfaye proposed to replant the forests, while enhancing the biodiversity with coffee trees.
Presented with the seedlings, community members began asking when the new coffee trees would produce cherries. After hearing that trees take 4-5 years to mature, many of the seedlings were returned. Despite the lack of faith from his community, Tesfaye was determined and reserved land to start a nursery for the returned seedlings. Taking years to produce tangible results, nursery workers became disinterested, and Tesfaye resigned from his government job to pursue coffee farming. After his first harvest, the once discouraged community members were inspired by the Suko Quto farm to grow their own coffee trees.
Since the initial harvest, Suke Quto has grown substantially and eventu- ally the Suke Quto Washing Station was developed to work with other local growers in the area to process their cherries. At the washing station, coffee is pulped leaving the remaining mucilage. It’s then fermented between 15-48 hours in fermentation tanks and dried on raised bed from 9-15 days. Despite all of his success, Tesfaye wouldn’t claim himself to be a farmer: “… because coffee is everything to me. All my time and energy are placed into the beans that I harvest and process.”
Tesfaye focuses heavily on environmentally friendly practices in coffee farming and strives to continue the economic growth of his community, advocating for farmers to earn livable wages, as well as initiating a community project to renew local schools. All coffee from Suke Quto are Organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified.
At Ruby, we felt inspired by Tesfayes devotion to coffee and his community. After sampling this coffee, we knew we had to spotlight it as a single origin on our menu. With elegant acidity, and a sweet and floral body, we hope you enjoy this special coffee as much as we do.