The person behind the coffee
Selam. Founder, Ethiopian Coffee Beans.
In Ethiopia, coffee isn't a morning habit. It's not a quick cup before work. It's a ceremony. It takes time. It asks you to sit down, slow down, and be present with the people around you.
I grew up inside that. The smell of roasting beans filling the room. My mother's voice, my father's voice, elderly relatives whose stories only came out over coffee. Long afternoons that nobody rushed. That's what coffee meant to me before I knew anything about processing methods or Q-grades or green coffee logistics.
Those memories are why this business exists.
There's a joy in taking something from your upbringing and putting it in front of people who appreciate it for what it actually is.
Eight years in the US
I've been in the US for eight years. I built a career in digital marketing. I know how to take something real and help the right people find it.
What I kept coming back to was Ethiopia. Ethiopian coffee. The fact that the world's most extraordinary coffee origin was being filtered through supply chains that diluted the quality and the story by the time it reached roasters who actually cared.
I could no longer stand not doing something about that.
The honest part
I'll be honest about something. I came into this industry as a digital marketer with a deep personal connection to Ethiopian coffee, not as a green coffee trader with twenty years behind me.
So I'm learning out loud. Every region I source, I research and write about. Every cupping I attend, every conversation with the exporter, every piece of the trade I figure out. I document it. Because the roasters who work with us deserve to know exactly what they're buying and who they're buying it from.
What I bring is the origin. The relationships. The cultural context. Eight years of knowing how to find an audience for something worth finding.
That's what this is built on.
The real reason
I wanted to share the best of Ethiopia with the world. Not a version of it. The real thing.
Specialty roasters who cup a natural Sidama and go quiet for a second. Customers who taste a washed Yirgacheffe and want to know more. Those moments are what I'm building toward.
It's what those long afternoons over coffee always felt like. I just want more people to feel it.
Selam means peace in Amharic. It felt like the right name to put on this.
First time sourcing Ethiopian or looking for something more direct than what you have. Either way, tell us what you need. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help.
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