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NOISILY SLURPING A MOUTHFUL
of coffee and expectorating it
into a nearby spi oon, Omar Bagersh somehowmanages to leave
his crispwhite shirt unmarred. “There is no neater way to do this,”
apologizes the 40-somethingEthiopiancoffee trader. Onhis tasting
scheduletodayarethreevarietals: Yirgacheffe, Lekempti andHarrar,
each named for the highlands in which the beans were grown.
Yirgacheffe beans always top the charts, Bagersh says, and here in
his lab they bear an index card that reads “Grade Two,” meaning
they’re just one step fromperfect.
Of the 336 million pounds of green coffee beans exported each
year fromEthiopia, a small percentagewill beworthy of boutique
prices. This is the domain of Bagersh and his brother, third-
generation coffee traders who seek out farmers’ blue-ribbon
batches by taste-testing samples fromalmost every 50-pound jute
bag that comes through theirwarehouses. In otherwords, they’re
trying to hit the jackpot one sack at a time. “Every lot is different,”
Bagersh says. “Even within the same lot, you can find variations.”
Most beans fail the test, but occasionally the brothers strike
gold. One example is their Idido Misty Valley, which was “a fly-
away success in the U.S. and had a cultlike following,” Bagersh
says. That batch recently ran out, however, and the variables that
made it exceptional (like soil, water and handling) are impossible
to re-create—so the brothers are back on the hunt.
Aiming to take the guesswork out of their business, they’ve also
begun shi ing from exporting to growing. That’s at odds with
tradition: Ethiopians generally make a strong class distinction
between those who trade and those who work with their hands.
(Even playing an instrument can be considered lower-class for
this reason.) Undeterred, the Bagershes planted several hectares
on their own farm in western Ethiopia and plan to harvest their
first sellable crop this season. It’s their hope that they’ll be able to
consistently produce some of the finest coffee in the world.
“Life is too short to drink bad coffee,” Bagersh says, shaking his
head, as he fills another cup.
Behind the Beans
The messy business of high-end coffee exporting
BY RACHEL SLADE
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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MARCH 2012
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PETER OUMANSKI
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