Introduction to Alo Village in Bensa Town, Sidama: What Does Alo Coffee Mean?

FrontStreet Coffee: Ethiopian Sidamo Alo Hatessa Natural Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Sidamo Bensa Alo Hatessa
Altitude: 2180-2280 meters
Variety: 74158
Grade: G1
Processing: Natural Method

Flavor: Magnolia, passion fruit, pineapple, mango, fermented notes

What Does Alo Mean?

Alo Coffee PLC is a coffee trading company from Ethiopia, founded in 2020 and mainly responsible for exporting coffee from the Bensa region. In effect, it functions as a green bean brand.

In the second year after its founding, its founder Tamiru Tadesse Tesema entered the 2021 Cup of Excellence (COE) competition with beans grown and processed in Alo Village, taking an impressive first place (anaerobic natural 74165) and fifth place (natural 74158). Since then, Alo Coffee and Alo Village have risen to prominence across the coffee community and drawn the attention of countless enthusiasts.

Where is Alo Village Located?

On the map, Alo Village sits in the northeastern part of the Sidamo region, on the highest slopes of Bensa Woreda. Bensa is known for its unique geographical advantages, with coffee growing altitudes ranging from 1,800 to 2,300 meters. Compared with many Ethiopian classics, many coffee trees in Bensa Woreda grow between 2,200-2,350 meters, and the famous Alo Village stands out among them, reaching an altitude of 2,400 meters.

FrontStreet Coffee has noted in previous articles that for specialty coffee, the higher the growing altitude, the more slowly the cherries mature, so the harvest comes later than in other regions. The green beans therefore have higher density and form more complex, intense aromatic structures. On the other hand, the high altitude also lengthens the drying time for the cherries, and the post-harvest fermentation takes place at relatively low temperatures, developing fuller floral and fruit aromas.

The Man Behind Alo Coffee

A native of Bensa, Tamiru was born in Alo Village and studied engineering at university. After graduating he taught at a university for two years before devoting himself to the specialty coffee industry. In 2020, when he saw fellow farmers from Bensa Woreda win COE awards, he recognized the immense potential of specialty coffee from this region. Yet small-scale operations and backward farmer conditions made it hard to commercialize these products in the market. He resolved to bring high-quality "Bensa flavor" to the world, and so founded his own company, Alo Coffee.

Tamiru first earned his Q-grader certification, then, drawing on his understanding of Bensa's growing and production conditions and years of green bean export experience, began to systematically organize the region's production, distribution, and quality from scratch. He also analyzed the challenges and opportunities then facing Ethiopian specialty coffee. In just two years, Tamiru has put Alo's name in specialty coffee shops overseas again and again.

In the same year he founded the brand, he established a green bean processing station in Alo Village and built an exclusive transport system to collect and process cherries from more than 200 small farmers in the surrounding area. At the same time he provides those farmers with professional training and technical support while tightly controlling every detail of green bean processing to ensure traceability at each stage. In his personal life, Tamiru is also a deeply compassionate man, devoting a portion of the company's income to building schools and giving local children better educational conditions.

FrontStreet Coffee believes Alo Coffee's current reputation comes first from Tamiru's wholehearted dedication to his hometown of Bensa, and second from his commitment to high-quality coffee and strict control of green bean quality.

Understanding Alo Coffee's Production Footprint

Today, Alo Coffee's harvesting operations are concentrated mainly in the Bensa Woreda area of the Sidamo region. Distinguished by village, besides the most famous Alo Village, batches from Bombe Village, Murago Village, and Bashiro Gute (in Bona Zuria Woreda) also reach the market, and these locations are more than 20 minutes apart by car.

Tamiru has also published processing station details on the official website. Alo Coffee's green bean processing areas currently include eight processing stations: Main (the main station), Chilaka, Morke, Hatessa, Mewa, Hurro, Gute, and Chire Kalo.

FrontStreet Coffee's research shows that Main, Hatessa, and Chilaka all sit in Bensa, Morke is in Bura, Mewa and Hurro are both in Nensebo, and Gute is in Bona Zuria. Every station is placed near coffee farms, which speeds up post-processing and preserves the freshness of the cherries.

In Ethiopia, because many processing stations (wet mills) mainly handle cherries picked from the surrounding area, stations are typically named directly after villages. Regulars on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, such as Kochere and Banko Gotiti, are named after their villages. In the same way, Hatessa, Mewa, and Gute denote both the villages and the washing stations.

In terms of varieties, Alo's coffee comes predominantly from the JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) 74 series, including 74158, 74165, 74112, and 74110. The 2021 COE champion was variety 74165, but currently only 74158 from Alo is relatively common on the market. The batch FrontStreet Coffee obtained this time is 74158, selected from the Hatessa processing plant under Alo Coffee (shown as "Hatesa" on Google Maps), a small village 23 kilometers south of Alo Village. The fresh cherries underwent traditional natural processing.

Natural Processing

Before the official natural drying, the farmers first hand-pick fully ripe cherries, transport them to the Hatessa processing station for an initial screening, and classify the fruit again before cleaning. By observing skin color they remove overripe or underripe cherries to ensure uniform color before sun-drying.

For naturally processed coffee, the farmers handling post-processing must turn the fruit on the drying beds very diligently during the first three days, since the cherries hold a lot of moisture then. Without prompt turning they not only mold easily but also develop unpleasant sour or rotten-fruit flavors from uneven heating. Throughout, the cherries are spread in only a thin layer to keep ventilation and drying even. After 14-18 days, once the moisture content reaches the target, the coffee is bagged and sent to the warehouse.

Through comparative observation, FrontStreet Coffee notes that green beans from Hatessa natural batches are mostly on the smaller side, round and miniature in appearance, roughly between screen sizes 10-12. For this particular bean, FrontStreet Coffee hopes to highlight its ripe fruit sweetness while preserving more of its floral aromas, so it chose a medium-light roast to present the elegant character of this Alo coffee.

Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee first met the sweet floral and fruit aromas of this Alo coffee, with distinct magnolia, pineapple, yellow peach, and small mango in the dry aroma, alongside a pleasantly sweet fermented fragrance.

On the slurp, the entry reveals rich tropical-fruit acidity and sweetness, with prominent ripe pineapple, passion fruit, and perfumed lemon, plus slight black tea notes. The gentle fermented sensation combined with light florals makes it hard to resist a second sip. As the temperature drops slightly, the coffee begins to show drupe characteristics like yellow peach and dried apricot, with a clear, bright acidity that stays complex: truly exceptional.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

This Alo lot is a natural 74158 from Bensa, and if that JARC 74-series variety is what caught your interest, the FrontStreet Hamasho Natural is a close cousin. Also from the Sidamo region, the Hamasho processing plant has become a fixture on the winners' lists of Ethiopian green bean competitions thanks to its excellent quality and distinctive flavor. It grows mainly JARC 74-series disease-resistant varieties, especially 74158, whose beans are on the smaller side with prominent floral and fruit aromas. The FrontStreet Hamasho 74158 has an alluring scent of perfumed lemon, strawberry, and star fruit; the entry shows clear sweet notes of strawberry, star fruit, and green grape, with a light floral note gradually emerging.

For another natural Sidamo, the FrontStreet Natural Flower Queen is a natural companion piece. It comes from the Hambella area in Guji, Sidamo: the whole farm covers 200 hectares and uses traditional natural processing, with ripe cherries spread on raised beds for 21 days and turned constantly to dry evenly, defective or moldy beans hand-sorted out every three to five days. Once the skin dries hard it is hulled, then sorted once more for a perfect cup. Medium-light roasted, it shows a light fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango, a much richer and more layered body, honeyed sweetness, a cocoa note with a touch of spice, a full body, and a long aftertaste.

And to taste the same JARC 74-series family in a washed expression familiar from Ethiopian classics, the FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe is an easy place to begin. It shows the clear jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity that people call the signature of Yirgacheffe, a small town in southern Ethiopia where spring-like weather, drifting mist, and cool damp air have let thousands of coffee trees thrive. The cup is light and elegant, weaving floral and fruity acidity into a tea-like body, and drinks like a clean, refreshing glass of lemon tea.