The Lalesa station

Lalesa is a processing site in the Gedeb district of Ethiopia’s Gedeo Zone, the southern corner of what is sold to the world as Yirgacheffe. Gedeb sits closer to Guji than to Yirgacheffe town itself and has a reputation of its own for dense, perfumed coffees. The site covers roughly 3.5 hectares with about 350 raised drying beds, and it takes in cherry daily during harvest from smallholders in the surrounding hills, most of whom farm one to two hectares alongside subsistence crops like enset and banana.

Ephtah Specialty Coffee

The station was bought in 2023 by Ephtah Specialty Coffee, a women-led exporter founded by Wubit Bekele. Ephtah runs education, financing and leadership programmes for women in the communities it buys from, and employs several hundred people at Lalesa during the harvest months. Cherry is sorted on intake for ripeness, then dried on the beds under close monitoring, with drying times running from around ten days up to nearly three weeks depending on the process and the weather.

About Pala Kaffebrenneri

Pala is a small roastery on Kvenildmyra in Trondheim, started by Idar Ellingsen in 2018 and run today with Roy Davidsen. Between them they have more than 40 years in the trade, and Idar is a certified Q-grader with two Norwegian cup tasting titles. Pala buys through importers that share its stance on traceability and seasonality, roasts separate filter and espresso profiles for most lots, and colour-codes its bags by flavour profile using its own palette system.

Brewing it as espresso

A sensible starting point is 18 g in, 36 to 40 g out, in 26 to 32 seconds, then adjust from there. High-grown Ethiopian coffees usually want a finer grind and a slightly lower brew temperature than a darker roast, so a grinder with stepless adjustment makes dialling in much less frustrating; the Eureka Mignon Zero 55S is a common choice for exactly this reason. Give the beans four to seven days off roast before pulling shots, since fresh espresso roasts tend to gush and channel. Served straight, a thick-walled 80 ml cup like the Loveramics Egg keeps the shot warm long enough to taste it properly as it cools.

Coffee details