Artist Reserve: Ethiopia Muntasha - Anaerobic Natural

ARTIST RESERVE: ETHIOPIA

MUNTASHA ANEROBIC NATURAL

Anaerobic Natural — 74158

BLUE FRUITS, STRAWBERRY CANDY, BLUE ICE POP

The turned-up version of a coffee we already love.

We're back with another Artist Reserve collaboration with Landon Sheely, this time featuring an absolutely wild anaerobic natural from legendary Ethiopian producer Mullugeta Muntasha.

If you enjoyed the naturally processed Muntasha we released last week, think of this as its louder, fruitier, candy-coated sibling.

Extra time fermenting in a sealed environment takes an already expressive coffee and pushes its fruit character into another dimension. We're tasting an explosion of blue fruits, blue ice pop, strawberry candy, ripe papaya, and juicy watermelon. It's intensely fruity, decadently sweet, and almost impossibly fun to drink.

A true fruit bomb, with the kind of vibrant complexity that makes us fall in love with exceptional Ethiopian coffees all over again.

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Bean Details

• Origin: Arbegona, Southern Ethiopia
• Producer: Mullugeta Muntasha
• Producer group: Approximately 600 Arbegona outgrowers
• Elevation: 2,230 meters above sea level
• Variety: 74158
• Process: 

  Anaerobic Natural

• Grade: G1
• Harvest: 2026
• Tasting notes: Lush pineapple, juicy wild blueberry, and rich caramel sweetness
• Roast type: Light
• Partnership established: 2022
• Artist: Landon Sheely
• Series: Artist Reserve

Farm Level

About Mullugeta Muntasha

Mullugeta Muntasha is one of the producers helping redefine what's possible in Ethiopia's southern Guji region.

He grew up in Bursa, a village where coffee cultivation is still relatively new. As a young man, he worked as a truck driver in Arsi, transporting coffee cherries to private washing stations before eventually becoming a collector supplying the central market.

As changing climate conditions made coffee cultivation more viable around Bursa, planting expanded throughout the area.

In 2021, Mullugeta returned home and established his own drying station, Dawencho.

And things moved quickly.

That same year, he placed second in Ethiopia's Cup of Excellence with the Dawencho farmer group and sixth under his own name.

In 2022, four of the competition's top ten coffees were processed at Dawencho, including the first-place lot from Legesse Botola, Mullugeta's brother-in-law.

That's a remarkable achievement for a relatively new coffee-producing community.

Today, Mullugeta processes cherries from his own farm alongside coffee purchased from neighboring growers, helping create new opportunities for farmers throughout the region.

About the Coffee

This particular lot comes from Arbegona in southern Ethiopia, at an impressive 2,230 meters above sea level.

The coffee is traceable to approximately 600 smallholder producers contributing to the Arbegona station.

At these elevations, the combination of cool temperatures, slow cherry maturation, and careful processing creates an extraordinary foundation for quality.

And this year's harvest is a beautiful example.

There's an intensity to the fruit that we love in exceptional Ethiopian naturals, but also a level of clarity that keeps the coffee feeling lively and refined.

Pineapple and wild blueberry lead the way, followed by rich caramel sweetness and a long, juicy finish.

It's the kind of natural that reminds us why we get so excited when these coffees arrive every year.

The Process

Muntasha is a sun-dried natural, produced from the Ethiopian variety 74158.

With natural processing, the coffee cherry remains intact during drying, allowing the fruit and seed to develop together before the dried cherry is removed.

The result can be an extraordinary concentration of sweetness, aromatics, and fruit character.

What makes this particular lot so impressive is its balance.

There's plenty of saturated tropical and berry fruit, but the cup remains clean, structured, and wonderfully expressive.

It's a great example of the quality coming out of Arbegona and the work Mullugeta and his neighboring producers are doing.

Artist Reserve — Landon Sheely

We're incredibly excited to welcome Landon Sheely back to the Artist Reserve series.

Landon is a Wisconsin-based tattoo artist and illustrator whose work draws from classic Americana, traditional tattoo imagery, and a wonderfully distinctive visual language.

His illustrations have a timeless quality to them, blending bold linework, playful symbolism, and a little bit of the unexpected.

For this release, we're featuring his striking illustration of a skeleton floating among flowers. It's playful, a little surreal, and a perfect fit for such a vibrant coffee.

This is the first of two Artist Reserve releases featuring Landon's work, and we couldn't be happier to have him back.

Artist Reserve exists to celebrate the artists who inspire us just as much as the producers who grow our coffee.

Pairing Landon's artwork with a coffee this special feels like exactly what the program was made for.