Metad and the Alaka Korchema farm

Aman Adinew founded Metad in 2010 and started producing coffee three years later, with his brother Tariku joining soon after. In the Hambela Wamena woreda the company farms 200 hectares across the Alaka and Bishan Fugu kebeles, using the semi-forest system common in southern Ethiopia: the coffee grows under what remains of the native forest, including tall qararo trees. Each plot is planted with a single variety, the cherry is picked by hand, and drying on raised beds takes three to four weeks at over 2,000 metres, where the cooler air slows it down.

Metad puts part of its profit back into the area, funding clinics, roads and wells, supporting a local primary school and university scholarships, and more than 70% of its farm workforce are women. This is the second year Quo has bought from Aman.

What the variety numbers mean

74110, 74112, 74140 and 75227 are selections from Ethiopia’s Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC), picked out of local forest coffee and released to farmers largely for their resistance to coffee berry disease. Many coffees sold simply as Ethiopian Heirloom are made up of selections like these. Here the farm keeps each one on its own plot, so the lot is a known mix rather than a guess.

About Quo Coffee

Quo roasts on a Loring S15 Falcon in the old customs house by the guest harbour in Skärhamn, on the island of Tjörn north of Gothenburg. The roastery buys through long-term relationships, several of them with producers it has known for around a decade, and was one of the first partners in Belco’s programme to ship green coffee to Europe by sail. Quo does not flavour its coffees; the notes on the bag describe the coffee’s own character.

Brewing it

Natural Ethiopians carry a lot of soluble fruit, so they can turn heavy or boozy if pushed too hard. Grind a step coarser than you would for a washed coffee and keep the water just off the boil, around 93 °C. Try 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water on a cone dripper, with a total time of 2:45 to 3:15. A grinder that keeps fines low helps the blueberry stay clean rather than jammy, which is what the 1Zpresso ZP6 Special is built for. Give the beans five to seven days off roast before the first brew.

Coffee details