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Bette Buna

@bettebuna

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Change the world. Create hope. Through coffee.
Growing coffee & community
📍🇪🇹 Sidamo Taferi Kela & Guji Megadu

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The two people behind all of this.

Hester is from the Netherlands and has always been a dreamer - the one who looks at a hillside and sees a classroom. Dawit is Ethiopian and more of a strategic realist - the one who asks who is paying for it and when the container ships.

They have worked together in Ethiopia since 2009. Bette Buna came in 2020, after almost two decades of creating opportunities, mentoring communities and building systems that empower people. The company was not the beginning of the work. It was the point at which the work needed an engine.

Ask them anything in the comments - about the farms, the training, the coffee, or why anyone would build a business this complicated when a simpler one was available. They answer these themselves.

Put people first. Everything else is logistics.

#EthiopianCoffee #SpecialtyCoffee #Ethiopia #SocialEnterprise #CoffeeWithPurpose by @bettebuna

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21 days ago

We didn’t start with coffee. We started with a question.

Dawit and Hester have been in Ethiopia since 2009 - almost two decades of creating opportunities, mentoring communities and building systems that let people stand on their own. Bette Buna, the coffee company, only came in 2020.

The question that came first was simpler and harder: what actually changes a rural community’s future?

Not charity. Charity is a transfer, and transfers end. What changes things is a structure - somewhere people can learn, experiment, fail cheaply, and grow a skill that stays with them.

Coffee turned out to be that structure. It already grows here. It has a global market. It rewards knowledge with money, every single harvest. So we built a company around it - not to sell coffee and donate the margin, but to make the coffee itself the classroom.

Specialty coffee is more than a tasty product. It is a tool to turn knowledge into action, effort into change, and farms into living classrooms.

This month we’re telling the whole story from the beginning. Start here.

#BetteBuna #EthiopianCoffee #SpecialtyCoffee #coffeewithpurpose by @bettebuna

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5

a month ago

Our farms and mills are not showrooms. They are classrooms you can walk into.

Five things a farmer learns at our demofarm by doing them, not by hearing about them:

1. SOIL MANAGEMENT.
2. STUMPING.
3. SHADING.
4. COMPOSTING.
5. FARM LAYOUT.

Why demonstration and not a manual: hands-on experience gives farmers, literate or not, the confidence and skills to implement what they see. Knowledge that lasts, and spreads across the community.

Save this one.

#Composting #SoilHealth #CoffeeFarming #EthiopianCoffee #RegenerativeAgriculture by @bettebuna

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3 days ago

🍒Bean review🍒
Its been a while!

[Ad]

This one is worth waiting for......i
@dees.koffie is a gorgeous micro roasters, with a small cafe, friendly staff and delicious pastries set in the heart of Bruges. It is literally on a beautiful street lined with antique shops, and I was luckily enough to be visiting. Now, i need to give Dees a massive shout out. They knew i was visiting, but didnt know when, and the staff were so friendly and cheery first thing in the morning with all their customers. They obviously have a loyal fanbase as i saw the same familiar faces grabbing a coffee every day I was there.

Now as for their beans.... they work hard in stocking a variety of beans. From something well known to rare lots. They want to be at the forefront of coffee as it evolves in processing methods, bean variety and origin. The packaging is vibrant and colourful, and the roastery in their coffee shop is cosy and inviting.

Ok, and now for the beans...
•Gayo Sesongot• Indonesian. Made up of 6 varieties this roast is juicy and complex. The cherries are grown at 1300m making it sweet and well balanced.. It is almost wine like, with a soft sweet smoothness.

•Los Angeles• El Salvador. Pacamara variety, natural Anaerobic. These beans were huge, possibly the biggest i have ever seen, and the flavour was amazing. They had such a fruity sweetness it reminded me of peach cobbler that was served with a brandy snap on the side. When milk was added it was so smooth and velvety it tasted like a galaxy bar. It was glorious, and I just loved the colour of the bean.

•Guji Megadu• Ethiopian. These beans are from the Bette Buna farm (meaning House of Coffee). This farm is the brainchild of Dawit & Hester, who work tireless to improve processing methods, promote sustainability and unite communities. The cherries are grown high, at 2000m, giving the bean a fruity and sweet flavour. They have a vibrant acidity which dances in your mouth for a while after. I loved these beans.... dialled in really well and filled my house with a delicious aroma.
@bettebuna

Thanks @dees.koffie, the beans were great and so was the cafe 🍒❣️

#Coffee #food #fyp #autumn #coffeetime by @bettebuna

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4 days ago

Every one of these photographs was taken on the same day in our photobooth of our June community bootcamp.

So look at them again. These are not only the faces of people who grow your coffee. They are also the faces of people who got up early morning, walked to our demofarm, and actively participated in 5 different bootcamp stations, to learn something they were not sure would work.

People with plans. People who wanted to know why the neighbour’s stumped trees came back stronger. Young people deciding whether there is a future here or whether it is in the city. Women who run the farm and have never once been the person invited to the training.

Every single day 250 farmers showed up with their personal invitation. 2000 in total.

That is the part we find hard to explain to people outside this work: the appetite is not the problem, and it never was. The missing piece was somewhere to go and see it done. A space where they can safely ask questions, try out and discuss with each other.

#EthiopianCoffee #CoffeeFarmers #Sidama #CoffeeStories #FarmerTraining by @bettebuna

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6 days ago

We’ve shared the place, the people and the coffee. Our latest journal article brings them together, explaining why we began buying from Bette Buna and what continuing the relationship asks of us.

We’ve met Hester several times during her visits to London. When Nathaniel interviewed her, he asked what roasters could contribute beyond buying coffee.
She began with feedback. Tell producers when a coffee is good. If a sample doesn’t work, explain why. She also spoke about open conversations around costs, buyers who return for the next harvest and listening to communities before proposing projects.

Now in our third year of buying Bette Buna’s coffees, those answers give us a practical standard for how to continue.

Why We Buy Ethiopian Coffee from Bette Buna - written by Carlo Carrieri and Nathaniel Monahan-Lai.

Read the full article at: https://glasscoffee.co.uk/blogs/news/why-we-buy-ethiopian-coffee-from-bette-buna

Photography: @bettebuna
Written by Carlo Carrieri and @nafanstoke by @bettebuna

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10 days ago

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11 days ago

Seeing is believing. That is why we turn our farms and mills into living classrooms. [Part 1 of 2]

In this first part, Hester explains what actually happens at the bootcamp.

Farmers in our community learn by doing. Soil management, stumping, shading, composting, farm layouts: all demonstrated in practice at our demofarm. Demo plots and hands-on experience give farmers, literate or not, the confidence and the skills to implement what they see.

That last part matters more than it sounds. A leaflet is useless to someone who cannot read it, and a lecture is useless to someone who has never seen the technique done on soil like theirs. A plot they can walk into is not.

Knowledge that lasts, and spreads across the community. That is the whole design.

Part 2 is coming Thursday. Stay tuned to learn more about how the bootcamp works. Follow @bettebuna so you don’t miss it.

#BetteBuna #LivingClassrooms #FarmerTraining #EthiopianCoffee #demofarm by @bettebuna

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13 days ago

Getting to know Hester has helped us understand more about Bette Buna and the people behind the coffees we buy.

During her visits to London, we’ve spoken about production, the business and the communities around it. She has also shared some of the disruption and uncertainty her family has faced amid instability in Ethiopia. It was difficult to hear what they have been living through.
Her account brings the importance of a lasting purchasing relationship into focus. Producing excellent coffee takes investment and care, often long before a buyer tastes the result. Returning buyers, workable prices and honest communication all matter.

Bette Buna’s willingness to share production data and discuss costs gives us a stronger basis for that relationship. We can ask more informed questions, understand the coffees more closely and explain our choices with greater confidence.

We admire the care Hester and Dawit bring to their work. We’re glad to be continuing into our third year of buying their coffees.
Photography: @bettebuna by @bettebuna

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16 days ago

Sidama Taferi Kela. Guji Megadu. Two places, and the reason we do not work in twenty.

Almost everything in these photographs happens whether or not there is a coffee company nearby: bread on the fire, houses on the hillside, families, a Sunday. Coffee grows in among it, the way it has for generations.

We chose to go deep in two communities rather than wide across many, because the thing we are trying to build - trust, trained farmers, trees that produce for decades - is measured in years, not projects. You cannot do that in ten districts at once, and anyone who says they can is selling something.

This is the place. Next week we’ll show you exactly what we do here.

Change the world. Create hope. Through coffee.

#Ethiopia #EthiopianCoffee #CoffeeCommunity #BetteBuna by @bettebuna

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17 days ago

This coffee comes from Megadu, in Odo Shakiso, within Ethiopia’s Guji zone.
The map places it within a wider landscape of coffee growing.

Knowing the location gives us a starting point; understanding the people cultivating the coffee and the decisions behind each harvest brings us closer to the lot itself.

The figures in this carousel describe the region. Ethiopia’s 2021/22 Meher survey recorded around 70,000 coffee holders and 21,700 hectares under coffee in Guji. For Bega 2025/26, the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute placed the zone in the 25–50 mm rainfall class.
These observations provide regional context. They are not measurements taken at Bette Buna’s farm.
Mapped elevation uses Copernicus WorldDEM-30: © DLR e.V. 2010–2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014–2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved. by @bettebuna

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18 days ago

NEW: Bette Buna Cherry Spark⁠
⁠
Roasted and packed this week, thirty kilos only!⁠
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Six days of fermentation in Guji, and no second batch.⁠
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Story in bio. by @bettebuna

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19 days ago