Ethiopia — Tamiru Tadesse Alo Main Station 74158 (Shaded Dry Natural)

Tastes Like — 🍓 Strawberry • 🍇 Grape Juice • 🍈 Grapefruit • 🍋 Lemon • 🍵 Earl Grey

DETAILS

• Producer: Tamiru Tadesse, Alo Coffee
• Farm: Alo Main Station
• Region: Alo Village, Sidama Bensa, Ethiopia
• Varietal: 74158
• Process: Shaded Dry Natural
• Elevation: 2,450 masl
• Project: Sky Project (with Tri-Up Coffee)

INTRO From Tamiru Tadesse's Alo Main Station, part of the ongoing Sky Project — a long-term collaboration between Tri-Up Coffee and Alo Coffee exploring higher-altitude cultivation in response to global warming. Strawberry and grape juice sweetness lead, with grapefruit and lemon brightness, finishing on an Earl Grey-like structure. In the cup: strawberry, grape juice, grapefruit, lemon, and Earl Grey.

THE PRODUCER Only a year into establishing Alo Coffee Export Plc, Tamiru Tadesse had already built a strong reputation among specialty coffee buyers across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2021, he won 1st place at the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence, advancing his goal of bringing greater recognition and reward to Sidama Bensa's coffee farmers. Sidama Bensa-born himself, Tamiru saw the disconnect between his hometown's exceptional coffee quality and how undervalued it remained in the market — a gap that put smallholder families at a real disadvantage. Inspired by a friend's 2020 Cup of Excellence win, he founded Alo Coffee to give smallholders the means to process their cherries into distinctive, high-quality lots and connect them with buyers who properly reward that value.

Alo Village, at 2,400 masl, is the site of the company's processing headquarters, where surrounding growers bring their cherries for post-harvest processing. Beyond premium cherry purchasing, Alo Coffee provides agronomy knowledge-sharing and funds community development projects, including schools, while managing the full post-harvest process so farmers can focus on their land and trees.

THE PROCESS This lot is part of the Sky Project's Darkroom Dry Natural Process — cherries are dried whole under shaded conditions, part of Tri-Up Coffee and Alo Coffee's ongoing exploration of higher-altitude natural processing.

The shaded, high-altitude natural drying is the defining step — it's what builds the layered strawberry and grape juice sweetness behind this cup, while preserving the grapefruit and lemon brightness through to an Earl Grey-like finish.

THE CUP Layered and bright — strawberry and grape juice sweetness up front, grapefruit and lemon brightness through the middle, finishing on an Earl Grey-like structure.

Flavour Notes 🍓 Strawberry 🍇 Grape Juice 🍈 Grapefruit 🍋 Lemon 🍵 Earl Grey