Travel with our head buyer Joanne Berry to Ethiopia to visit the Tropiq Headquarters in Addis, and cup and select coffee. This trip can also easily be combined with the trip to Kenya.
Tropiq Ethiopia – our team on the ground in Addis
These are busy times in the Addis Ababa cupping lab of our sister company, Tropiq. The team in Ethiopia constantly cup, race to the warehouses to verify samples and stocklots, and follow up on dry milling and export preparations. As many of you know already, Alexander Lenouvel Hansen, who was previously based in our Oslo office, made a move to manage Tropiq Ethiopia, where we have a team of five people.
We have been working in Ethiopia for several years, and still it can surprise us. There is a lot of great coffee around, but getting it to port in prime condition takes both experience and patience.
Through our broad network of suppliers we can pre-book a lot of the coffees even before they are produced or there is a final stocklot to cup. We maintain relationships with a wide range of exporters, farmers, washing stations and cooperatives, and we are always looking for new sources who can help us maintain the quality and deliver particular profiles.
However, even the most reliable washing stations can have a bad year. Climate conditions, political instability or local conflicts can seriously impact the quality of a coffee, or a supplier’s ability to deliver. Additionally the washing stations we work with produce exceptional coffee, but they also produce high volumes of lower grades. All of this is to say it’s not wise to book coffees blindly, and an offer sample may not be an accurate representation of a coffee that is shipped.
This is why we have a local office in Addis Ababa. Our team on the ground gets first-hand information, and the first pick of many coffees. We cup though hundreds of lots throughout the harvest, pre-screening lots for our customers. And the moment our coffees land in Addis, our team is at the warehouse taking a stocklot sample. We will measure humidity, water activity and re-cup for confirmation. We then give the go-ahead for processing, and ensure our member of our team is at the dry mill to adjust, reprocess, and immediately take a PSS sample to be sure this represents the whole lot. Usually we wait until this point before we present coffee to our customers, because we want to be sure the samples are as accurate as possible.
This trip can be combined with a trip to Kenya
Schedule:
4th March – 09:00 arrive in Addis, cup for selection. We will cup coffees mostly from the South, from different suppliers we are partnered with, both washed and naturals.
Cupping vs Farm visits: (mostly cupping is 1, mostly farm visits is 5)
Travel intensity (internal travel):
Intensity of cupping:
Amount of downtime/privacy:
Caters for special diets:
Frequency of stomach issues when NA team has travelled in this origin:
Is this trip for me?
Our origin trips are for coffee professionals with green coffee purchasing responsibilities. You can escape the office/roastery and enjoy some spectacular scenery, however these trips are not holidays. You will work hard, and you are expected to behave as a professional at all times.
Comfort and security
Our coffee origins are all developing world countries with different standards of safety, varying degrees of infrastructure and diverse cultural norms. If you are concerned about your comfort or security on these trips, please reach out to our head buyer, Joanne. We will do everything we can to facilitate safe and relaxed travels.