Syoum Family

The story of the Syoum family begins with their grandfather, who founded the coffee farm before World War II. Today, it is run by Dawit Syoum and his wife Hester under the brand name Bette Buna—which means “house of coffee” in Amharic. On their land in the Guji Meguda region, at an altitude of around two thousand meters, they combine traditional methods with an emphasis on transparency and fairness. The cherries are hand-picked, dried on African beds for about three and a half weeks, and processed through natural fermentation. Decaffeination is then carried out using the EA (ethyl acetate) method in Bremen—one of the gentlest processes, which preserves the bean’s original flavor profile. The roasting is handled by Von&Vonnie, a micro-roastery in Porto’s Bonfim neighborhood founded by Morgan von Mantripp and Yvonne Spresny.

The two met in Thailand, traveled to coffee farms throughout Southeast Asia, and eventually settled in Porto, where they roast using a Stronghold S8X machine. The green beans for this batch are supplied by the Paso Paso project, a platform based on the “farmer-owned coffee” principle, where producers are direct co-owners. In the cup, you’ll find orange, flowers, and sugarcane—a surprisingly sweet and clean profile for a decaf.