Ethiopia Tagel Alemayehu - Washed

This lot was produced with cherry collected during a two-week period in December 2024. Each contributing coffee is traceable back to the farm where it was grown.

We have this coffee thanks to the committment and passion of Tagel Alemayehu, the owner of Olkai coffee. For Tagel, coffee runs deep. Tagel grew up in Hambela, the son of a local coffee trader who built the first and largest washing station there and installed the first Pinhalense dry huller in Ethiopia. When the coffee market collapsed, his father lost his business to the bank. Tagel worked as an accountant and cherry collector for export companies, learning the business, and built his reputation for precision and savvy while saving the money he earned—enough to buy his father's mill back from the bank. Tagel founded Olkai in 2018 as the government export regulations opened. Olkai is a family business; his wife works as the export manager. Eventually, he returned home to Hambela and built this station in Goro, where he hopes to bring his own children up in the coffee business. Tagel and Olkai operate a half dozen washing stations in the south dotting many of the most sought-after regions for quality in Guji, Bule Hora and Sidama. Tagel’s ties to the community were forged over 20 years of collecting cherry from these regions. Community members later sold land to make space for him to operate a washing station in their community.