Nesru Abanura is a coffee producer from the kebele of Kota in Jimma Zone, southwestern Ethiopia. Passenger’s green buying team had the pleasure of meeting Nesru and her husband Mensur Abahika - who is also a coffee farmer - on our most recent visit to Ethiopia in January, 2023. Nesru and Mensur are members of the Tokuma Group, a community of coffee producers who hold their own export licenses, enabling them to sell their coffees directly to specialty importers and roasters (as opposed to selling to local farmer cooperatives, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, etc.). Highly traceable, single-producer lots of this kind are still somewhat of a novelty in Ethiopia, as the liberalization of certain trade regulations (making it possible for individual farmers to export their own coffee) occurred only a few years ago.

Given the cost of building and operating a wet mill, it makes perfect sense that relatively small-scale Ethiopian coffee producers like Nesru and Mensur exclusively produce “dry processed” lots, which can be prepared without the benefit of a pulping machine and fermentation/washing infrastructure. While Passenger’s traditional preference for washed coffees has meant that dry processed (or “natural process”) additions to the menu have been relatively rare occurrences, we were immediately impressed by the sweetness and complexity of flavor that this stellar natural from Nesru exhibited on the cupping table.

Nesru’s farm encompasses nine hectares (about 22 acres) at a favorable elevation of approximately 2000 meters above sea level. After careful cherry selection during harvest to ensure consistent ripeness, her coffee is carefully dried on raised beds for about 21 days. This lot is predominantly composed of JARC 74110: an incredibly common Ethiopian variety, originally propagated from a “mother tree” selected in the 1970’s by researchers at the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC).