Eight months have flown by since I started dreaming about visiting Ethiopia 🇪🇹 I’ve been waiting for this trip so eagerly like a giraffe 🦒 

Finally, I’m leaving for Ethiopia🇪🇹!

The Shimizu sisters of Beans Kitami are mothers with small children.

We are going to miss our children.

But now, we are off to Ethiopia and experience its coffee and culture, and soak it all up before coming home!

I’m looking forward to talking about coffee with fellow roasters from all over Japan and Taiwan and roasters 😊.　

I brought an Alaka coffee I roasted yesterday with me, and packed my backpack just at seven kilograms.

Let’s start the exciting journey ✈️

We could choose from four destinations:

(1) Bolivia

(2) Kenya, Tanzania

(3) Ethiopia

(4) Guatemala, El Salvador

Such a generous offer!

The elder sister chose Ethiopia,

and the younger sister picked Kenya and Tanzania.

Our choices were divided.

Following the Japanese custom of seniority, we decided to honor the elder sister.

With two sisters, and a united passion, it was time to leave for Ethiopia!

In preparing for the trip, we began learning about Ethiopia’s history and religion. And of course, the history of coffee in the country, too.

Today, coffee is grown worldwide, but most of it are commercial varieties that are resistant to disease and produce a large yield of cherries.

Ethiopian coffee, on the other hand, is a native variety and grows wild, unlike their commercial counterparts. In other words, Ethiopian coffee is the seed of all that came after it.

I would imagine that varieties were passed down from generation to generation, or became extinct due to disease, or experienced genetic transformation naturally as coffee has run its history without us knowing it.

That is why Ethiopia has a flavor that’s unique and irreplaceable.

By the way, Beans Kitami has a lineup of 40 to 50 varieties. Our store specializes in bespoke roasting, which means that we roast green beans right on the spot upon receiving an order.

We are also an ardent fan of Ethiopian coffee, offering up to seven kinds of Ethiopian beans. For us, Ethiopian beans are irreplaceable. Let’s make this a journey to unravel the mysteries of its flavor and aroma!

I prepared for the trip while juggling work and raising a child! While doing so, I was looking at a list of must-dos.

(1) A backpack of no more than seven kilograms to prevent lost baggage

(2) Bring a sleeping bag

Whew!

Though I will share some of the stuff with my sister, I still need a lot of things! I’m the cautious type who packs heavy just in case of an emergency. After struggling to cut my luggage to under seven kilos, now I’m finally ready to go to Ethiopia, with all the passion and yearning also on my back!

I can’t wait to go to Ethiopia, a place I’ve always wanted to see.

Off we go!

Beans Newsletter

Hello, everyone. We are the Shimizu sisters of Beans Kitami.

We are a small coffee roastery founded in 1988. Ever since, we’ve been roasting coffee on demand in a way that’s tailored to customers’ various preferences, using an original roaster developed by ourselves in Japan. The Beans small roaster excels at bringing out coffee beans’ unique character. Small-batch, direct-fire roasting gives coffee a powerful aroma and lasting umami. We hope that you enjoy coffees full of unique characteristics roasted by a staff of coffee lovers.

Beans publishes a newsletter every month. This time, we are delivering the first extra edition in a while!

That’s because TYPICA, a company we’ve featured now and then in this newsletter, has made a tempting offer to the Shimizu sisters: a chance to visit the coffee producing country of Ethiopia!

Before we set off on the trip, we’ll be writing our strong love for Ethiopia in this extra edition.

At Beans, we regularly sell 6 to 7 Ethiopian coffees. We only buy beans that are a good match for our small roaster.

But we can’t know if a coffee is a good match immediately after roasting. We’ll know whether a coffee is suited to our roaster only after cupping it right out of the roaster and examining the change of tastes over days.

Sometimes, we test-roast a coffee dozens of times, tinker with roasting profiles little by little and cup it to create tastes. Only the beans that clear all these hurdles will make it onto our lineup.

Ethiopian beans, in particular, are full of uniqueness. It’s not very often that we come across ones that pass the rigorous test. What is our impression of Ethiopian coffee? You may ask. We weren’t necessarily good at writing summer-break book reviews as a student.

But we’ll give it a go!

A majority of our Ethiopian coffees come from the southern region (Hambela, Yirgacheffe), east of the Great Rift Valley. The reason for the focus on this region is because its coffees have good aromas, flavors, aftertaste and character.

And above all, consistent quality is the key decider.

By the way, you want to know what we think is the key that determines quality?

We’ll let you readers in on the secret.

Point1

Ability to discern ripe cherries

Unlike in other countries, large-scale farms managing cherries in one place are in the minority in Ethiopia. A vast majority are small-scale farmers growing coffee trees in their gardens in traditional, natural farming methods. (Garden coffee)

There isn’t much of a difference between native trees. The key to the flavors unique to Ethiopia is the ability to pick only ripe coffee cherries.

Picked cherries go bad in one day. So unripe cherries will not be picked.

This region we are buying from is home to many farmers who have consistent abilities to pick only ripe cherries.

For more details, please refer to Newsletter Backnumber Issue 172!

Point2

Technical prowess of processing stations

The amount of coffee one small farmer harvests is extremely small.

So it’s hard to commercialize it. That’s why there is a system below.

Picked cherries are brought to a collection spot called a primary market → Cherries collected here, separated by the farm, are moved to a processing station where cherries are processed → Cherries are selected and processed at a processing station.

The ability to select cherries is the biggest factor determining the quality.

We buy coffee with these two points in mind. There is something the Shimizu sisters have always been wondering about. That is, what kind of life farmers who grow delicious coffee are living? When we look up their location using information we have, the result sometimes points us to a completely different place, or often, no search result comes up. There are times when we don’t know their exact location on the map.

This is because many regions in Ethiopia don’t have an accurate government registry of addresses, unlike in Japan. During the upcoming trip to Ethiopia, we will explore both soft and hard aspects that are not available even with the power of the internet. We want to explore the lives of coffee farmers and their passion for coffee, and share our experience with you with our own words.

We still have a long way to go. But why don’t you come along with us on a exciting trip to find delicious coffee? Stay tuned for more newsletters to come!