yabitu koba - ethiopia

Little Waves Coffee Roasters is a small independently owned Latina majority-owned, women-forward company based in Durham, North Carolina. They are a group of thinkers, dreamers, and doers who delight in the enduring power of coffee as a shared experience. Their team is diverse and open-hearted, made up of people of different cultures, genders, languages, faiths, and beliefs. Little Waves' mission is to source the highest quality coffees that make the deepest impact. By making small, determined reverberations through sourcing, roasting, and brewing, they add their open-hearted energy to the tides that unconceal and uphold the beauty of coffee and life.

Little Waves Coffee Roasters strive for sustainability in everything they do from relationship to energy usage. Their roaster has an 80% reduction in energy usage compared to traditional roasters. Their retail coffee bags are 60% compostable. They divert coffee bi-product chaff to be used in local community gardens.

This lot of Dinkinesh: Yabitu Koba is comprised of deliveries from farmers of the Yabitu Koba community, who deliver to the Gogugu Washing Station, located in the Wate Gogugu Village of the Uraga woreda (district). Located in the beautiful mountainous landscapes of the highlands of Guji, Uraga is considered one of the highest-elevation coffee-growing areas of Ethiopia with an altitude of 2,310 meters.

The wet mill is owned and operated by SNAP Specialty Coffees. SNAP Specialty Coffees is owned and operated by Negusse Debela who has not been in the coffee industry for his whole career. He is known in Ethiopia as a computer guy, running a successful computer part import company. While coffee does not seem like a natural leap, he was inspired during a trip to Minnesota where he tasted a pour-over at a café that gave him an epiphany. At that moment, Negusse realized the potential of coffee in his home country, and upon returning, he got right to work. He began by touring coffee processing sites throughout southern Ethiopia to understand the farming and processing better. From that initial tour, he was determined to set his company SNAP on a course to be one of the highest-quality exporters in Ethiopia.

The hard work, attention to detail, and community support are without a doubt showing up in the cup. This washed community lot is bursting with floral aromatics, tropical punch vibes and vanilla sweetness in the cup. It's a coffee you just want to keep sipping on.

Grind note: This is a light roast and closer to a European third wave coffee roast that you may be used to, so you will not need to adjust your usual grind if you are hand-pouring (like for other Little Waves coffees we source).

Shelf-life: 180 days