Alo Zero Fermentation, Ethiopia | 150gm

This coffee comes from Alo Coffee, founded by Tamiru Tadesse and his wife Messi in Bensa, Sidama, Ethiopia. Tamiru built Alo Coffee around the idea that the exceptional coffees produced by smallholder farmers in Sidama deserved greater recognition. In 2021, their first competition lot from the village of Alo won Ethiopia’s inaugural Cup of Excellence, establishing the producer as one of the region’s most distinctive specialty coffee operations. At 2400–2550 masl, this coffee is grown at an exceptionally high elevation, where cool temperatures and slow cherry maturation allow sugars, acids, and aromatic compounds to develop gradually. The high-altitude environment of Bensa is particularly well suited to producing coffees with delicate florals, bright acidity, and pronounced tea-like characteristics. This lot is grown at Alo’s main station in the Alo village area. This lot is composed of the JARC 74158 varietal, an Ethiopian selection developed through the country’s coffee research programme. 74158 is widely cultivated in the highlands of Ethiopia and is known for producing expressive floral and fruit characteristics when grown at high elevations. In this lot, the variety is paired with an unusually precise processing approach designed to preserve its natural clarity. The coffee is processed using a zero-fermentation washed method, an approach developed by Alo Coffee that removes the traditional fermentation stage entirely. Ripe cherries are first sorted to remove floaters before being mechanically pulped and washed immediately. The freshly washed parchment is then dried slowly on raised African drying beds, where it is regularly turned and protected from the strongest midday sun. By eliminating fermentation, the process reduces the influence of fermentation-derived flavours and allows the coffee's varietal character and terroir to come through with exceptional clarity. In the cup, this coffee presents bergamot and Sencha, with a delicate, tea-like structure and a clean, bright finish. The combination of extreme elevation, 74158 genetics, and zero-fermentation processing creates an exceptionally clear and refined expression of Ethiopian coffee.