08/19/2026
Our first community get-together on home turf in a long time strengthened our gratitude & pride for belonging to a fiercely supportive community of passionate coffee people, who are both uncompromising about quality & unwavering in their excitement to discover & reward the cups that expand & let us clearly taste coffee’s beautiful possibilities.
Setting the context for this year’s auction, our Associate Green Coffee Buyer tolentinokobi shared insights from recent travels to Sidama Bensa, while our QC and Customer Relations Lead@windualifart facilitated the cupping rounds.
Candid conversations on expectations vs actual impressions and thoughtful consideration of the lots’ merits came with every round. While some invited consensus-driven evaluations, a few stand-out, crowd favorites emerged.
Along with serious home brewers, among us were long-admired pioneers in the UAE specialty coffee scene, who have at least once represented the best of our community on the world stage, national coffee competition champions & finalists, coffee educators, green coffee traders, and roasters who show us how passion for coffee and steadfast dedication to excellence continually open up opportunities to thrive while doing what we love.
Congratulations to Tamiru Tadesse, his wife Messi, the Alo Coffee partner smallholders whose hands shaped every treasured coffee cherry in those 20 exceptionally Ethiopian lots, and whose hopes for the next harvests would be inspired by the results. Powered by M-Cultivo this auction elevated the value of Ethiopian coffee yet again, and all the winning bidders and the communities of coffee lovers whose taste preferences they represent! We’re so grateful that Natural EPN-05 from Debebe Dangura and Experimentals, EPX-06 and EPX-07, both from Ayele Arse, are coming home to us!
Thank you to all of our friends, new and returning, who took us up on our invite to explore and enjoy all Echoes of the Peak auction lots, some of whom co-bid on the lots we won.
That gathering made us sorely miss getting our community together, so it’s perfect that the upcoming Sunday’s auction lot cupping gives us a reason to meet again soon. Catch you then!
