DAGI
MAWI
MORE
Ethiopians love coffee, period! As a result, coffee is still a social drink, even in coffee shops. Coffee is also a street drink in urban centers across Ethiopia, small and big towns alike. Unlike other coffee consumption cultures, coffee consumption is a means to unwind and interact with other human beings. Actually, Ethiopians don't drink coffee alone and it's meant to be shared, even with strangers. In Ethiopia, coffee is the embodiment of sisterhood with Ethiopian women being the face of every value addition in coffee, even modern commerce and the regulation of coffee as a cash crop has not pushed out women from the Ethiopian coffee culture. Coffee is also environmental, spiritual, and political in Ethiopia. It's possibly the only place I know where you can get elected to run a country of 125 million people on a coffee platform. With politics aside, Ethiopia can easily advocate for and succeed in registering coffee as both a cultural and natural heritage of Ethiopians. After all, Ethiopia is not only a center of origin for C. arabica but also a center of origin for coffee consumption as both food and beverage; coffee is a snack, a coffee drink, and tea drink with the beans, husks, and leaves serving as inputs. This is not the past for Ethiopia; it's still our present with millions consuming coffee drinks made from roasted beans, husks, and leaves. The latter two are also used to make tea drinks. In all, milk, butter, salt, spices, and herbs are used regularly and elevate coffee to the next level. I am not sure which wave Ethiopia is on but I am sure we are long past the fourth wave. The hope is to take you on this journey with my personal roasted coffee brand, DAGI MAWI MORE.
Before I get started, it is important to clarify the brand. Personally, I simply love good coffee, which is the case with most Ethiopians. It really doesn't matter what species it is or which variety it is; I just love good coffee and expect good coffee. The latter is also true with Ethiopians where a daily laborer will dedicate up to 10% of her or his income for coffee with no questions asked and likely consumes a better coffee than the ones that are made available by modern coffee bars in Addis for the urban elites. So, with this brand, I want to bring you awesome coffees that I have had the chance of enjoying throughout my coffee journey without making it a financial burden. Still, it's not free 😊.
I also want to tell Ethiopian coffee stories that take you on a journey. This is why the store is called ESHI SAFARIS! I can take you anywhere with coffee, to the past, present, and future. So, what better way to do it than to constantly develop coffee products that narriate a particular story. For example, the first product I put together for you is a blend of coffees from Ethiopia and Yemen. They are all Naturally (Sundried) Arabic coffees and is meant to take you back in time when Ethiopians likely took coffee across the Red Sea when administering present day Yemen as part of the Axum Kingdom. This also represents a major milestone in the story of coffee and it's propagation across the world. There is also a reason why I will only use Natural (Sundried) and honey processed coffees in my products; I personally don't find the idea of using water to wet process coffee when over 800 million people lack access to drinking water. Of course, the water used by the wet mills is reintroduced into the stream or river it came from but is either contaminated by the pulp that changes the water chemistry or significant amount of resource is spent to treat the water before discharge. Regardless, I still don't find the cost-benefit analysis convincing to me personally. Again, do I drink good coffee that is wet processed? Yes! What can I say, I just love good coffee. I simply don't want to do it because it doesn't represent my take on coffee.
In addition, I find the complex flavor profiles of natural and honey processed coffees mind blowing. Of course, I am also a big fan of fermentation and is the norm when doing natural and honey processing. When it comes to fermenting coffee for processing, Ethiopians are pionners. The majority of naturally (sundried) coffees that your have tried have undergone through some level of fermentation. Personally, all the local alcoholic beverages that I enjoy including Tella (local beer) and Tej (honey wine) are fermented beautifully before they are filtered and served. Simply yummy! Ethiopians also do make coffee infused honey wine (mead) that will keep your well-balanced 😂 imagine having a left side that's tipsy and a right side that's super focused ... That might be an awesome collaboration with a mead makes 🤔 maybe for Christmas or Easter! Regardless, the idea behind the natural (sundried) coffee focus is to bring to you the beauty in simplicity. After all, you only need nature and skilled humans to accomplish a beautiful natural (sundried) coffees. Actually, part of the reason why Ethiopians ferment their naturally processed coffees is to allow microbes to eat into the husk so that the hulling process is easier to accomplish manually. It also ends up adding the an extra kick into the flavor profile dur to the fermented sugars of the pulp. As for the aroma and scent of the coffee, it's to die for. I can simply go into a trans state from it. Here, we find another beautiful feature of Ethiopian coffees; it's freshness. Everything about coffee in Ethiopia is fresh; it's a garden and forest fruit and mainly harvested and dried naturally and stored with the husk unhulled, which keeps it fresh. After being hulled, it's roasted, ground, ang brewed fresh, be it the beans, the husk, or the leaf. Over 250,000 tons of coffee is consumed in Ethiopia and more 80% is done at the home and mainly in the countryside. Ethiopians might number 125 million people but over 75% still reside in rural Ethiopia. The mountainous terrains might be awesome for coffee production but complicates travel and logistics. Thus, Ethiopians find it a necessity to grow coffee for home consumption. The domestic market is so powerful, the government finds it a necessity to protect international buyers by limiting local access to export quality coffee. So, if you are traveling to Ethiopia, you may not find excellent coffee at cafes and hotels in abundance unless you are invited to people's homes. Ironically, I know of plenty of people that bring roasted Ethiopian coffees into Ethiopia ... especially my coffee snob friends and acquaintances 😊 I personally love good coffee and expect good coffee wherever I go. However, I don't have the snobby touch (hopefully) and will just drink a beautiful tea. Actually, I do drink lots of tea 😂 this leads me into another aspect of the brand, which is know and explore yourself. When lucky, express yourself also. With this brand, that's how I feel.