We try to work closely with all of our producing partners, but none more closely than our friends at Bette Buna. Skylark donates about £10,000 per year to support Bette Buna's goal of improving livelihoods and working conditions in Ethiopia, and two of our team members even work part-time for Bette Buna because we think it’s critical to give their social projects every chance to succeed. This is our ‘house coffee’ from Bette Buna that we’ll try to stock year-round. It’s got tasty notes of milk chocolate, almond, and cherry pie, and it’s the perfect affordable daily drinking coffee that also supports brilliant work in one of the least-advantaged coffee producing communities in the world. We contracted with Bette Buna for 100 bags of this coffee before it was harvested. When we cupped it, it was WAY better than we expected, so we changed our order to 150 bags and voluntarily increased our price per kilo to fully compensate the producers for their splendid work. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome. For a bit more about Bette Buna, check out our blog post here or read on below ... Betta Buna was founded by partners Hester Westerveld-Syoum and Dawit Syoum when they inherited their grandfather’s tiny family farm in Taferi Kela, Sidamo. With a background in NGO and development work, they decided to grow and scale the farm as the foundation for a larger company with greater impact. Having started in 2019, they have already grown considerably. They have expanded the Taferi Kela farm from 2 to 50 hectares and have spread to a second 50-hectare farm in Megadu, Guji. Both farms have tree nurseries where climate change-resistant varietals are grown to share with surrounding farmers. Similarly, they have facilities where they not only process their own lots but also educate other farmers in processing techniques, while their Coffee Campus programme provides training in roasting, brewing, and even exporting. They provide countless opportunities for their farming communities by not only teaching and motivating farmers but also hiring local workers at their nurseries and mills, including single mothers and disabled people who would struggle to find employment elsewhere. They also work hard to incorporate sustainable farming methods, rewild forests on their land, and protect local wildlife to promote ecosystem health for coming generations. To create this lot, fresh cherries were hand-sorted by each farmer to clean out underripe/overripe cherries and any leaves or sticks. The sorted cherries were dried on African raised beds for about 20-25 days until they reached the right moisture level. The raised beds are important to facilitate airflow to ensure equal drying of each cherry. The dry cherries, still in their natural hulls, were bagged and moved to the Bette Buna mill in Megadu. There the natural lots rest for a minimum of 8 weeks after bagging to improve the complexity and intensity of each cup profile. Each coffee was evaluated in the lab and a decision was made about which “sub-lots” could work as a community blend. After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, another round of hand sorting by the milling team removed defects. After that, the bags of green coffee were loaded on a truck to take a 3-5 day drive to the main Bette Buna dry mill in Gelan. Here the cherries underwent another round of cleaning, screening on size and density, and color sorting, and were bagged a final time. This lot is a blend of cherries from Bette Buna’s own farm and community farmer Wodera.