Crush is back, and for the third time, it’s starting to look like a pretty serious relationship. The third installment of our collaboration with the Doubleshot roastery heads to Ethiopia this time, bringing us a natural coffee from the Mirado station. When brewed as a pour-over, this version is beautifully juicy and fruity. The flavor profile blends sweet lychee with ripe apricots and dried mango, while the syrupy body ties the entire cup together nicely. The result is a bold yet clean coffee that resembles tropical juice and reveals even more sweetness as it cools.
Mirado is one of the processing stations operated by the family-owned Daye Bensa company in the Bensa region of Ethiopia’s Sidama. It was founded by brothers Asefa and Mulugeta Dukam, who wanted to offer local growers better conditions for processing and selling their harvest. Today, they work with thousands of smallholder farmers and operate a network of processing stations in several parts of Ethiopia. The coffee cherries for this lot come from small family-run gardens around Mirada, where coffee trees grow at an elevation of approximately 1,800 to 2 ,200 meters above sea level. The cooler conditions slow the ripening of the cherries and help develop their sweetness and aromatic complexity.
After being hand-harvested, the whole cherries are carefully sorted and dried for approximately twenty days on raised African beds. During drying, they are turned regularly to ensure the process proceeds evenly and to prevent unwanted fermentation notes from developing. The dry processing here highlights the sweetness, juicy fruit, and fuller texture, while still preserving the coffee’s clean and elegant character. The result is a natural Ethiopian coffee with a tropical profile, a long finish, and exactly the playful energy that the third Crush is meant to have.
- Producer: Daye Bensa, the Dukam family
- Processing station: Mirado
- Altitude: approximately 1,800–2,200 m above sea level
- Harvest: 2026