Addis Ababa , Ethiopia – November 30 , 2017 . 8 am --
Garden of Coffee is excited to announce the launch of their newest Café-Roastery. Located in the heart of Addis Ababa at Sar Bet , on the ground floor of the JFK Building , this café-roastery serves Ethiopia’s Legendary single origin coffees , hand roasted by Ethiopia’s top coffee artisans. In addition to serving up the absolute finest hand roasted coffees , the café-roastery is targeting to create more than 60 well-paid jobs for the community .
LETTING COFFEE LOVERS IN ON A SECRET
“This new Café Roastery is our love letter to Ethiopia and our amazing coffees and coffee cultures. It gives people an opportunity to experience first-hand the depth of the artistry that IS Ethiopia’s hand roasting artisans .” Founder of Garden of Coffee Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu stated .
“My driving passions are sharing Ethiopian cultures with the world , and finding exciting ways to keep these cultures vibrant and fully relevant. I began Garden of Coffee so that people everywhere can experience the magic of hand-roasted Ethiopian coffees, roasted at their source by Ethiopia's finest coffee artisans. I knew that once people tasted Ethiopian coffee that has been hand roasted by traditional Ethiopian coffee artisans, their coffee perspectives would be forever changed. The result – a more exciting, authentic and rewarding experience for lovers of Ethiopian coffees. “
Alemu continued : “Every coffee lover knows that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and the finest producer of specialty coffee in the world. Now we intend to let the world in on another coffee secret - that Ethiopia is the source of the finest hand roasting artisans on the planet. In Ethiopia we grow up surrounded by family members harvesting the finest beans and then hand selecting and hand roasting these beans and preparing them into the most magical coffees ever sipped . Within this milieu we have developed the most gifted coffee artists on the planet, each one steeped in the arts + techniques of selecting and hand roasting Ethiopia’s coffee beans . These artists have the singular talent to bring out the true magical qualities of Ethiopia’s coffee beans. “
Hospitality : the CORE of Garden of Coffee
Hospitality doesn’t get any more authentic & heartfelt than that found in Ethiopia. It is woven inside Ethiopian culture and is the CORE of Ethiopia’s Artisan Roasted Coffee culture with coffee informing all significant interactions – social , business and other.
“The ethos of Ethiopian hospitality informs everything we do at Garden of Coffee. It is given expression by our brand tag : LIVE COFFEE . Our café roastery’s allow this to come alive , enabling and encouraging people to LIVE COFFEE by experiencing first-hand the depth of the artistry that IS Ethiopia’s hand roasted coffee while simultaneously enjoying incredible service and the absolute freshest + most flavorful roasted coffees “ Bethlehem continued. “ Our logo , which beautifully captures the art of coffee being skillfully hand-roasted by a woman in traditional Ethiopian attire , visually symbolizes what Garden of Coffee is all about : authentic craft & heartfelt hospitality delivered inside each cup of coffee that we serve.”
A PLACE TO LIVE COFFEE
Alemu designed the café-roastery with her creative team , and it was crafted to allow people to literally inhabit the world that is Garden of Coffee .The interactive 5,000 square feet space provides customers with an immersive and all-sensory environment where they can deepen their appreciation and understanding of Ethiopian coffee, the Ethiopian artisan craft of hand roasting and the brewing of the most unique coffees from around Ethiopia.
“Garden of Coffee is about allowing coffee lovers to LIVE COFEE. In Ethiopia we don’t just grow coffee. We LIVE coffee each and everyday. It’s embedded in the DNA of our daily life. Coffee personifies Ethiopia and we in turn personify it. We want to showcase and share that MAGIC with people everywhere on the planet and our café-roastery’s are the perfect format to do this within.”
“ We believe being an ETHIOPIAN coffee brand is a real and authentic differentiator in the high-end coffee space”, explained Bethlehem. “As all coffee lovers know Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee , AND as Garden of Coffee is showing, it’s also the home of the finest artisan hand roasters on the planet – a logical thing given that we are born and we have grown up in coffees birthplace. When you want the best malt whisky you would go straight to Scotland and their deep array of whiskey artisans. Same applies to coffee. If someone wants a truly MAGICAL coffee experience they should be embracing coffee that is grown , processed and roasted by hand by the top Ethiopian coffee artisans.”
What Makes Garden of Coffee Truly Unique & Special
Garden of Coffee promises the most immersive experience into the rarest , freshest and highest quality single origin ETHIOPIAN coffees . Ethiopia is home to THOUSANDS of undiscovered varietals and Garden of Coffee intends to let its guests experience as many of them as possible .
“This will be a most amazing journey. “ Alemu explained. “We like to say that we’ve been perfecting YOUR coffee and YOUR coffee experience for thousands of years . We source the finest beans from across Ethiopia and these are then re-selected by our team of the worlds finest artisan hand roasters. Then we prepare and roast them only for your order on our magnificent ceramic roasters. And we roast with the greatest of care in the same manner that’s been perfected here in Ethiopia for millennia - by hand, watching, smelling and hearing every single bean roast. It’s a magical process that allows us to bring out the absolute finest qualities from each bean. The result: The finest coffee that you have ever sipped. “
At any given moment MULTIPLE HAND ROASTS are roasting and people will be able to see ON SCREENS and on their MOBILE DEVICES what exactly is being roasted and select the roast they want to TASTE . Garden of Coffee guests are also able to select the exact type of Ethiopian coffee they want and then they can select the roast level they want that coffee roasted at from 6 different roast levels . Garden of Coffee guests will see green coffee beans from across the breadth of growing regions around Ethiopia , and then watch as those beans are prepared and transformed into some of the most magnificent coffees they have ever sipped by the top hand-roasting artisans in Ethiopia - all right before their eyes . Café-Roastery guests can even select and sample coffees from the various artisan roasters , allowing them to appreciate the different skills of each roaster and find their roaster of choice !
The café-roastery also features a retail section where people can buy freshly roasted versions of the coffees they drink inside the café-roastery. All bags are date marked with the roast date and the name of the artisan roaster who roasted the bag. Garden of Coffee also features a roast-to-order service that lets people order the exact type of coffee they want roasted and then select the level they want it roasted at. The coffee is then packed and sealed in Garden of Coffee’s state of the art bags in the size of the customers choosing .
“We are very excited about our roast to order business as it’s a true one of a kind model not available anywhere. People have different coffee palates so it is very appropriate to give them a way to select the roast type that THEY want. “
ORIGIN TRADE
“I am very proud to highlight that the Garden of Coffee cup design highlights the exact region in Ethiopia where the coffee inside the cup is grown as well as the artisan who roasted the coffee , allowing people to connect on a physical cup level with the exact place in Ethiopia from where the coffee they are drinking at that moment comes from and the person who roasted that coffee and transformed the beans into the magical drink they are enjoying . We are Very Proud that Garden of Coffee is the 1st brand to ever do this. Ethiopia is home to THOUSANDS of undiscovered varietals and we intend to let our customers experience many of them. This promises to be a most amazing journey”, explained Bethlehem.
This element is part of what Garden of Coffee are terming ORIGIN TRADE , a new movement that they, as a coffee nation, are defining. Origin TRADE means sourcing, processing, roasting and packaging their coffees right in Ethiopia where they grow them. This ensures the absolute best coffees for coffee lovers, low impact for the environment and an engine for prosperity and change for the growers, processors and roasters of these coffees.
The café-roastery has an incredible menu of foods and breads created by acclaimed local chefs and bakers. The breads on offer are ALL traditional breads ranging from DIFOO DABO to Anabarbero that have been reimagined in some exciting ways and incorporated into a host of menu offerings including amazing sandwiches. Additionally pastry items are being crafted from TEFF the celebrated GLUTEN FREE grain that is another Ethiopian gift to the world.
“I wanted to food offering to compliment what we are doing in coffee and fully show the deliciousness of Ethiopian breads and pastries made from Ethiopian grains .” commented Bethlehem .
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Garden of Coffee : A Coffee Brand Millennia In the Making
Just as she changed the way the world enjoys shoes and leather, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is doing the same for another beloved Ethiopian gift to the world, COFFEE , via her newest brand Garden of Coffee .
Bethlehem began Garden of Coffee so that people everywhere can experience the magic of hand-roasted Ethiopian coffees, roasted at their source by Ethiopia's finest coffee artisans. She passionately believed that once people tasted Ethiopian coffee that was hand roasted by traditional Ethiopian coffee artisans, their coffee perspectives would be forever changed. The result: a more exciting, authentic and rewarding experience for lovers of Ethiopian coffees.
To date there is NOT a single global Ethiopian coffee brand , one that controls the brand in all facets. Garden of Coffee is doing this by embracing traditional Ethiopian roasting methodologies not only because hand-roasting coffee is an ancient art that Garden of Coffee strongly feels is worth preserving and promoting, but because they believe this method of coffee roasting is the KEY to unlocking Ethiopian coffee’s true magical tastes.
Garden of Coffee has an amazing Story , a VERY BIG Idea , a fresh new perspective on the coffee trade that we have termed ORIGIN TRADE , and of course the most AMAZING coffees . And we are super proud to be the very 1st Ethiopian Coffee Roaster to be admitted to the Specialty Coffee Association!
Garden of Coffee was founded and is led by Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu , a globally acclaimed serial entrepreneur. Bethlehem has spent the past 10 years building Ethiopia’s and Africa’s most important and globally recognized consumer brands . In the process her ingenuity and innovation has received global acclaim with CNN naming her one of the 12 Greatest Female Entrepreneurs of the LAST CENTURY alongside SPANX founder Sara Blakely , Body Shop founder Anita Roddick , COCO Chanel and Elizabeth Arden ; while FORBES Magazine named her One of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women and AFRICA'S MOST SUCCESSFUL WOMAN . Fast Company Magazine named her One of The Most Creative People in Business alongside Mark Zuckerberg , Jeff Bezos , Sergei Brin , Marc Andreessen and also selected her as One Of The Most Creative People in Style & Retail .
Since launching in early 2017 Garden of Coffee has been receiving incredible global press from FORBES : BRINGING ETHIOPIAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP TO THE WORLD , CNBC BETHLEHEM TILAHUN ALEMU HAS BROKEN EVERY POPULAR PERCEPTION OF ETHIOPIA, NOW SHE WANTS TO START A COFFEE BRAND and CNN MONEY who is hailing Garden of Coffee as Africa’s Answer to Starbucks ! In addition key industry publications have given great coverage about our upcoming global expansion in wonderful articles by the influential industry publication ROAST MAGAZINE : Garden of Coffee Cultivating Ethiopian Coffee Experience for Global Growth and this AMAZING article from coffee’s bible SPRUDGE : Garden of Coffee- Grown And Roasted In Ethiopia .
Garden of Coffee’s core input , green coffee , is sourced directly from the finest best coffee farms in Ethiopia that Bethlehem has deep linkages with and which include many that are woman owned farms . She has access to a trust and understanding with these niche farms that other company’s cannot replicate as many are family and friends.
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Contact : Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu , founder, Garden of Coffee
4th Floor , Adams Pavilion, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
0911 11 08 48 * GardenofCoffee@gmail.com * www.GardenofCoffee.com
Garden of Coffee founder Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu has been invited by Jack Ma / 马云 to be an #ANPI judge this year.
The prize at stake? $1 MILLION USD.
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, Garden of Coffee founder and CEO, has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential African women in 2019 by Avance Media.
