Tsegay – Éthiopie

Sasaba station is located in the Kercha district, in the heart of Guji, at more than 2,000 meters. More than five hundred smallholder producers, Gedeo and Guji, bring their cherries here, picked from plots shaded by the native forest and ensete, the “false banana tree” planted here among the coffee trees.

The coffee is washed in the Ethiopian style: depulped on-site, fermented for 48 to 72 hours, then dried slowly for seven to eight days on more than six hundred African beds. The station pays its premium only for cherries that meet its high standards, and works primarily with long-standing, trained producers.

Tsegay Hagos Tesfaye founded Sasaba in 2005. Today, he runs two stations in the Kercha region and has set up his own export company in Addis Ababa, with trucks, warehouses, and sorting facilities: the coffee stays in his hands until it is ready to leave. He trains producers, advances them money during the lean months of the rainy season, and provides a vehicle for medical emergencies. This coffee bears his name.

At our cupping table, it showed notes of black tea and bergamot, carried by a silky body. The yellow fruits noted on the lot sheet, with peach leading the way, round out the cup.