Ethiopia — Basha Bekele Badagalo/Murago 74158 (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🍈 Pomelo • 🍵 Green Tea • 🍑 Pink Stonefruit • 🌸 Blossom

DETAILS

• Producer: Basha Bekele
• Site: Badagalo/Murago
• Region: Bensa, Sidama, Ethiopia
• Varietal: JARC 74158 (locally known as Kurume)
• Process: Washed
• Elevation: 2,350–2,580 masl
• Awards: 2024 Ethiopia Cup of Excellence, 2025 Top of the Harvest (Gonjobe lots)

INTRO
Badagalo is a small pocket of Murago, in Bensa, Sidama — one of the higher, cooler corners of Basha Bekele's land, taken on in 2021. Clean and delicate, this washed lot delivers pomelo, green tea, pink stonefruit, and blossom. In the cup: pomelo, green tea, pink stonefruit, and blossom.

THE PRODUCER
Basha Bekele is one of the youngest and most driven coffee producers in Bensa, Sidama. Since 2021 he's built a network of high, cool farms across Murago, Kokose, Badagalo, and Gonjobe villages, all on rich nitisol soils between roughly 2,350 and 2,580 metres, and runs his own dry mill in Bombe village. In 2024, his coffee won the Ethiopia Cup of Excellence, and in 2025 Top of the Harvest, both from his Gonjobe lots. The careful picking, floating, and slow drying show clearly in cups that are consistently clean, floral, and vividly fruited.

74158 was developed by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center — the "74" marking the year it was catalogued, 1974 — released to give farmers a plant resistant to coffee berry disease while still cupping beautifully. In the highlands of Sidama, it's often grown and sold under the local landrace name Kurume, tended in the traditional garden system alongside food crops.

THE PROCESS
Grown between 2,350 and 2,490 metres on nitisol soils, this washed lot is pulped, fermented for two to three days, washed, and dried slowly on raised beds.

The slow, cool high-altitude ripening on nitisol soils is the defining factor here — it's what builds the clean, delicate character behind the pomelo and green tea notes, with pink stonefruit and blossom rounding out the cup.

THE CUP
Clean and delicate — pomelo and green tea lead, with pink stonefruit sweetness and a floral blossom note throughout.

Flavour Notes
🍈 Pomelo 🍵 Green Tea 🍑 Pink Stonefruit 🌸 Blossom