What is Elto Coffee and where do its beans come from?

Elto Coffee Export PLC is an Ethiopian green bean brand founded in May 2022 by Eliyas Dukamo and his wife Atiklit Dejene. It operates in Bensa, in the Sidama region, and its micro-lots have quickly appeared on roaster menus and in auctions, largely because both founders brought years of processing and export experience from Daye Bensa Coffee.

Eliyas worked as operations manager at Daye Bensa, and Atiklit Dejene holds an agriculture degree and previously managed green bean processing at Gesha Village Estate before handling micro-lot and experimental processing projects. The name Elto comes from a Cushitic language used in Sidama and carries two meanings: beyond love and fertile. Coffee from this origin sits alongside other well-known growing regions worldwide, from Ethiopia to where is coffee grown in australia and where is fair trade coffee grown in Latin America and Asia.

If we were to name the figures in the Ethiopian specialty coffee scene that have been impossible to overlook in recent years, Front Street Coffee believes that Tamiru of Alo Coffee and Eliyas Dukamo of Elto Coffee would certainly be among them. Whether in international competitions, micro-lot auctions, or on the bean lists of specialty roasters worldwide, the names of these two founders have almost become synonymous with "high-quality Ethiopian coffee."

Elto Coffee's full name is Elto Coffee Export PLC, a cutting-edge green bean export brand established in May 2022. The brand was co-founded by Eliyas Dukamo and his wife Atiklit Dejene. Although it was established not long ago, its exposure in the professional coffee community has grown extremely rapidly.

Eliyas was born into the Dukamo family in Bensa, Sidama, and is a typical "second-generation coffee professional." Before founding Elto, he served as operations manager at the well-known local coffee company Daye Bensa Coffee, long participating in international green bean trade and developing a highly mature understanding of export processes, quality management, and market demand.

Atiklit Dejene also has a deep professional background. She not only holds a bachelor's degree in agriculture, but also once managed green bean processing at the widely followed Gesha Village Estate, after which she joined Daye Bensa, where she was specifically responsible for micro-lot and experimental processing projects, accumulating extensive practical experience in post-processing, fermentation control, and quality consistency.

The two met while working together at Daye Bensa, and on the basis of highly aligned philosophies, co-founded Elto Coffee. The brand's rapid market recognition was no accident, but rather the natural result of this couple's long-term accumulation across the three ends of cultivation, processing, and trade.

In terms of brand naming, the word "Elto" comes from an ancient Cushitic language widely used in the Sidama region and has a dual meaning: one is "beyond love," and the other is "fertile." In Front Street Coffee's view, this name precisely captures the core philosophy of Elto Coffee—not only stemming from a passion for coffee, but also attempting to convey the value of the origin's terroir in a systematic way.

Similar to what Front Street Coffee previously introduced Alo Coffee , Elto Coffee's core layout is likewise located in the high-altitude areas of the Sidama region, with bases mainly distributed in the central part of Bensa, near the two villages of Kokose and Gango. Among them, Gango village has about 600 smallholders, with coffee mostly planted on small farms of 1 to 2 hectares, often intercropped with banana trees, forming a typical traditional Ethiopian farming landscape.

At present, Elto Coffee operates multiple processing stations. Among them, the Songo processing station in the Hamasho area is the highest in altitude, with daily operations handled by the family of Eliyas's brother-in-law, and its highest altitude approaching 2,350 meters. Pronounced day-night temperature differences, stable microclimatic conditions, and mineral-rich volcanic ash soil together create a highly recognizable coffee-growing environment and have attracted smallholders from several surrounding villages to participate in cooperation.

The second processing plant is the Elora processing station, named after Eliyas and Atiklit's eldest daughter, located in Arbegona village at an altitude of about 2,250 meters. Seen from the air, its pink-purple roof is its most iconic visual feature.

In addition, Elto Coffee also has the MOFA processing station in the Mofa Mountain area and operates the Bare processing station, with coffee cherries mostly harvested from the nearby native highlands. The three lots that Front Street Coffee acquired this time come precisely from the MOFA and Bare processing plants.

Medium-light roast pour-over coffee recommendation｜ Front Street Coffee Ethiopia · Sidama · ELTO Coffee Beans

Region: Ethiopia · Sidama

Processing plant: elto Bare

Altitude: 1,920–2,300 meters

Varieties: 74112, 74110

Processing method: 72-hour anaerobic natural

Flavor profile:

Rose, blueberry, honeydew, passion fruit, pronounced fermented aroma

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.