We're excited to reintroduce our newest Select offering: Ethiopia Bedhatu Jibicho Natural, a light roast from Ethiopia's Gedeb district, with a rich, creamy body and notes of strawberry and cherry syrup.
We’ve been hoping to bring this one back for years. The coffee itself is delicious, but its origin story is even better.
The Coffee That Got Away
Finding great coffee is one thing. Finding great coffee from a producer we can work with year after year is another.
Bird and Bear owner and roaster Dan has spent years sourcing coffee from Ethiopia. While he's built relationships with several producers over the years, establishing a consistent supply of a particular coffee can be challenging.
Finding great coffee is exciting, but our goal is to find great coffee from a producer we can source from year after year.
In 2020, Dan asked our import partner, Royal Coffee, to help him find an Ethiopian producer whose coffee we could return to.
They had someone in mind: Bedhatu Jibicho.
Royal had been working with Bedhatu and her family for years, even helping them establish their own coffee export business. They encouraged Dan to try her coffee, and it was love at first sip.
We purchased our first lot from the family in 2020: a washed-process coffee that our customers really liked.
We loved the coffee and planned to buy it year again, but there was just one problem—Bedhatu’s coffee was so good, another roaster came in and bought the family’s entire crop for double the going rate.
Of course, we were disappointed, but we understood. Coffee sourcing doesn’t always go as planned and we were glad the family had found a great opportunity for their business that year.
Over the following years, Dan has kept an eye out for Bedhatu's coffee. Then, earlier this year, Royal announced a new natural-process offering from the family, describing it as something particularly special.
Dan immediately reached out to ask about it.
The response? "It's so good."
Dan's reply was simple: "Sign me up."
That's how Ethiopia Bedhatu Jibicho Natural finally made its way back to Bird and Bear.
Meet Bedhatu Jibicho
Behind this coffee is the remarkable story of a woman who spent decades growing coffee and building a business that would eventually become a family legacy.
Bedhatu Jibicho was born in the Worka area of Ethiopia's Gedeb district, a region known for producing exceptional coffees.
Her husband received the family's farmland from the Ethiopian government in the 1960s. When he passed away in 1991, Bedhatu took over management of the farm while raising their six children.
Over the next few decades, she continued growing coffee on the family's 84-acre farm, becoming a respected producer among her community.
In 2011, Bedhatu joined the Worka cooperative, followed by the Banko Gotiti cooperative in 2013. Both were part of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU).
That same year, she was recognized as a model farmer and selected to participate in a program that would help exceptional producers process and sell their coffee as individual lots, rather than blending it with coffee from other farms.
This distinction was significant. It allowed buyers to identify coffee specifically grown by Bedhatu and allowed her family to build recognition for the quality of their work.
With support from the cooperative union, Royal Coffee, and her sons, the family eventually established their own export business, Roba and Family Coffee.
Rather than relying entirely on the cooperative system, they could now export their coffee directly to buyers around the world.
The family's work has extended beyond their own farm, too. They've helped support neighboring producers through local cherry collection sites and investments in road infrastructure, making it easier and less expensive for farmers in the area to transport their harvests.
A Lasting Legacy
Bedhatu passed away in September 2026 at the age of 104.
The coffee we're sharing today comes from the final harvest under her stewardship.
For more than three decades after her husband's passing, Bedhatu led the family farm through a changing Ethiopian coffee industry, helping create opportunities not only for her own family but for other producers in her community.
Her sons will continue the family business, carrying forward the work she began.
What's in the Cup?
Ethiopia Bedhatu Jibicho Natural is a light roast with a rich, syrupy character and plenty of fruit-forward flavor.
We're tasting strawberry, cherry syrup, ripe red fruits, and a creamy sweetness, with delicate floral notes that bring everything together.
This is a natural-process coffee, meaning the coffee cherries are dried with the fruit still surrounding the seeds.
After harvesting, the cherries are carefully sorted and floated in water to separate the less dense fruit. They're then spread onto raised drying beds, where they dry for approximately 12–20 days.
Throughout the drying process, the cherries are turned and sorted by hand. They're also covered during periods of intense afternoon sun to help prevent uneven drying.
This careful processing helps create the rich, fruit-forward flavors we love in natural Ethiopian coffees.
Same Region, Different Experience
If you liked our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gedeb Natural, you might be wondering how the two compare.
Both coffees come from the Gedeb area of Ethiopia, both are light roasts, and both use natural processing. But they offer distinctly different drinking experiences.
The Yirgacheffe Gedeb Natural is lighter, more floral, and aromatic, with a delicate character.
Bedhatu Jibicho Natural, on the other hand, is fuller-bodied and richer, with a syrupy sweetness and pronounced red-fruit flavors.
It's a great example of how two coffees grown in the same region and processed using similar methods can still taste remarkably different.
Small variations in rainfall, harvesting, drying conditions, and the care taken during processing can all influence the final cup.
A Limited Coffee Worth Savoring
We recommend trying it as a pourover or espresso, though it's a lovely coffee to explore with whatever brewing method you prefer.
We have approximately 1,000 pounds of this coffee, and once it's gone, we don't know when we'll have the opportunity to offer it again.
We’re really excited to share this special coffee we love. This release represents something we've hoped to do for years: return to a coffee we loved, reconnect with a producer's family, and share the results of their work with you.
We're glad we waited.
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