Country of origin: Ethiopia
Washing Station: Damo Station
Owner: Asefa Dukamo
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1,920 to 2,020 meters above sea level
Varietal: JARC Selection 74158
As winter loosens its grip and the evenings slowly begin to grow longer, our February release celebrates a bright, lively natural process coffee from Ethiopia’s Sidama region. The perfect cup to help chase away the winter blues.
A little about the Sidama Producing Region:
Located in the southern reaches of Ethiopia, Sidama is well-known for coffee. Yet, recently, it has been regularly contested about the correct spelling, Sidama versus Sidamo. After a referendum in June 2020, Sidama officially became a regional state in Ethiopia, thus the ‘Sidamo’ spelling was deemed incorrect. This region is home to nearly 3.2 million people speaking the Sidama language with their own culture and traditions.
Additionally, this region is prized with fertile soils, high altitudes, and an ideal climate for high quality coffee. The coffee industry, since the growth of popularity of coffee from Ethiopia, widely uses ‘Sidamo,’ but due to the aforementioned political changes, Sidama is the correct reference to the famed coffee-producing region.
The story behind Damo Washing station:
In the high-altitude terrain of southern Ethiopia, coffee has always been part of life for Asefa Dukamo, owner of the Damo Washing Station. Raised by parents who farmed coffee alongside garden crops, Asefa learned early what it meant to grow, harvest, and depend on the land. As a teenager, he began buying coffee cherries from relatives and neighboring farmers, traveling long distances to reach the nearest washing stations. As you can imagine, the journey was exhausting and inefficient, a reality shared by nearly every producer in the region.
That challenge planted an idea.
In 1997, Asefa built his first washing station in Girja village, less than a mile from his parents’ home. For the first time, local farmers had a nearby place to process their coffee. What began as a solution for one community quickly grew. Another station followed in Eltama, then the establishment of the Qonqana “mother” washing station in Daye town, and eventually the addition of dry mills to support naturally processed coffees.
Alongside his younger brother Mulugeta Dukamo, co-founder of Daye Bensa Coffee, Asefa helped expand this network across six woredas in the Bensa region. Today, Daye Bensa operates 20 washing stations, multiple mills, and coffee farms, working with over 1,000 smallholder producers who collectively mill thousands of tons of coffee each year.
Coffee is only one part of life for producers in the region. Alongside it, families grow sugarcane, fruit, and Inset, a common indigenous plant prepared as food in many different forms. While income from coffee is important, it remains minimal for most farmers due to the small size of their farms, making subsistence crops essential to daily life. As a result, coffee here is grown organically by default not by certification, but by necessity since chemical inputs are simply out of reach.
Growing coffee in this region is not easy. Many producers lack access to electricity, clean water, roads, and basic communication, and opportunities to learn modern farming practices are limited. These challenges directly affect both yield and quality.
Through its “Back to the Community” projects, Daye Bensa is working to change that story—building roads, improving access to electricity, and sharing agricultural knowledge with producers. With plans for expanded training and a future health facility, the Dukamo family’s impact continues to reach far beyond coffee.
The Damo Station, named after a nearby village known for exceptional coffee, is where this story comes together, a place where producers deliver their cherries and begin the journey from remote hillsides to coffee cups around the world.
What to expect in the cup: Bright, lively, and unmistakably tropical, this coffee awakens the palate with a gentle bitterness, quickly lifted by a zesty grapefruit citrus punch. It then softens into a smooth, creamy mango texture that wraps you in pure tropical vibes. At first, I was convinced it finished with the refreshing sweetness of watermelon sour sweets as it cooled and lingered on the tongue. Over the last few days, though, that note seemed to bloom into something more delicate. A sweet, floral tone that lingers beautifully and leaves you thirsting for another sip.
Final thoughts:
Coffee from Ethiopia is renowned for its incredible diversity offering bright, floral and fruity notes, and this offering from the Damo washing station really hits that nail on the head and gives us a real feel for the truly outstanding coffee being produced in this particular region.
Moving forward we have just sampled a selection of coffees we are excited to share with you in the coming months including our first ever Roaster’s Choice coffee from Bolivia! Ensure you don’t miss out on these special coffees by signing up to our Roaster’s Choice Subscription via the link below.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and learn more about the excellent coffees we showcase and the remarkable stories that come with them.
Warm regards,
Shane
Head Roaster
