Ethiopia — Shantawene Village Bensa Heirloom (Natural)

Tastes Like — 🫐 Blackberry • 🍐 Pear • 🍒 Cranberries

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DETAILS

• Producer: Smallholder farmers
• Farm: Shantawene Village
• Region: Bensa, Ethiopia
• Varietal: Heirloom
• Process: Natural
• Size: 250g

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INTRO

Blackberry Hug is a Heirloom natural harvested in the Shantawene village of Bensa. Creamy, complex, and fruit-driven, with winey notes of blackberry, cranberry juice, and stewed pear. A gentle sugarcane sweetness lingers on the finish. An expressive natural that showcases the classic profile of Bensa coffees whilst delivering layered complexity and depth.

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THE PRODUCER

This coffee comes from smallholder farmers in Shantawene village, Bensa, one of Ethiopia's most celebrated coffee-growing regions. Bensa sits in the Sidama zone and is renowned for producing coffees with distinctive fruit-forward profiles and remarkable clarity. The area's high altitudes, fertile soils, and careful processing traditions create ideal conditions for exceptional natural coffees. Smallholder farmers in the region typically cultivate traditional heirloom varieties on small plots, delivering their cherries to local processing stations where careful selection and drying techniques bring out the terroir's full potential.

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THE PROCESS

The Natural process involves drying whole cherries:

• 🍒 Cherry Selection — Ripe cherries carefully selected at harvest
• ☀️ Sun Drying — Whole cherries dried on raised beds
• 👀 Monitoring — Regular turning and sorting throughout drying
• 🫘 Hulling — Dried fruit removed after reaching optimal moisture

This traditional method allows the fruit's sugars and flavours to infuse into the bean during the extended drying period, creating the characteristic fruit-driven profile.

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THE CUP

Creamy, complex, and fruit-driven. Winey notes of blackberry, cranberry juice, and stewed pear. Gentle sugarcane sweetness lingers on the finish. A layered natural with depth and character.

Flavour Notes

• 🫐 Blackberry
• 🍐 Pear
• 🍒 Cranberries