Ethiopia Desta Ware

Desta Ware Dole works with a family-run coffee operation in Guji with a growing focus on traceable individual farm lots and carefully controlled processing, allowing coffees like Desta’s to be presented with a level of specificity that is still relatively unusual in Ethiopia.

For this release, Desta’s 74110 cherries undergo a 96-hour anaerobic natural process developed through Project Horizon Bloom, a year-long processing initiative informed by previous harvests and focused on Brix measurement, fermentation temperature and cooler fermentation environments.

Only ripe red cherries are selected and sorted before their Brix is measured. The whole cherries are then sealed in fermentation vessels and kept in a cool environment away from direct sunlight, with temperature monitored throughout the 96-hour fermentation. Once complete, the vessels are opened and the cherries are transferred to shaded drying beds, where they dry for approximately 15–20 days.

The process is intended to produce an expressive, balanced cup without allowing fermentation character to overwhelm the coffee itself. The liquid produced during fermentation is drained and retained for use in a separate Mosto process, making this 96-hour lot the starting point for another processing approach from the same harvest.