ROUND HILL ROASTERY
Farmers
Balesi Dingu
Balesi Dingu is something of a leading light in his community, encouraging other farmers to follow in his footsteps in producing high quality coffee.
Balesi Dingu is a pioneering coffee farmer from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. Single farm coffees from Ethiopia have up until recently been very difficult to find and we are very excited for a long working relationship with Balesi going forward. This lot is comprised of Dega and Wolishu, named varietals in Ethiopian coffees is also something we’re excited about as due to the nature of Ethiopian small holds and the myriad of indiginous varietals these coffees tend to be landrace/ heirloom, meaning a mix of unidentified coffees. Dried for 15 days on African raised beds, placed on shade neds or hessian and rotated constantly for airflow as well as being covered by plastic or shade nets at night to avoid mould. The care and attention that goes into this coffee and others we’ve had from Balesi Dingu really make them stand out, loaded with ripe fruit flavours, and rounded sweetness but with none of the woodiness that can come from less carefully processed naturals.
This year we’ve noticed something truly unique that we haven’t really tasted in Ethiopian coffee for many years, this very nostalgic coffee flavour, candy and bubblegum, the kind of Ethiopian natural coffee that so many people in our industry would point to as their first “wow, this coffee doesn’t taste like coffee” …coffee..
So, yes, needless to say, we are big fans of Balesi Dingu’s coffee but more than that what’s really exciting is being able to work with a single ownership farm, which in Ethiopia, historically, has been quite difficult. It paves the way for a new approach to Ethiopian coffees, moving away from subsistence farming into farm ownership as a career.
Balesi Dingu is something of a leading light in his community, encouraging other farmers to follow in his footsteps in producing high quality coffee. Much of his time is spent advising fellow farmers on best practice for harvesting and drying for the speciality market. This is the third year we’ve bought coffee from Balesi Dingu, we hope we will continue to buy from him for years to come, and as is the hope with all of our relationships, we hope that we are able to sustainably grow together.
