Lake Tana Monastery Island Coffee - Ethiopia

Abyssinia Genuine Lake Tana Monastery Island Coffee
- Fully washed 100% Arabica

If you believe the legend passed on in the year 1671 by the maronite monk Antonius Faustus Naironus, it was the “Custos Camelorum” of a nearby monastery in Abyssinia who complained that the animals of his herd could not sleep and were wide awake jumping and hopping around.

The monk believed that the cause for this behaviour must be related to the pasture ground and he found coffee plants and brought them back to the monastery where a beverage was brewed from the fruits of the plant. The monks discovered, to their astonishment, that they could pass the whole night in stimulated conversation in a happy state of mind without any fatigue.

Unfortunately, it is not known in which year this story took place, but undoubtedly Christian monks in Abyssinia were the first to cultivate the coffee plant.

There is also the legend of the monk Betremariam who received a message from the archangel Gabriel to plant lemon, hops and coffee in order to cultivate them on the monastery islands of the lake.

The Tana lake is situated 1830m above sea level and is the source of the Blue Nile as well as the highest located lake in Africa. There are monasteries on approximately 20 islands of the lake, which go back as far as the early 13th century.

One of the islands where coffee is exclusively grown is Daga Estephanos where the Ark of the Convenant was hidden in 1535 during the invasion of a fanatic Arab warlord called Ahmed Gragn (the left-handed). Famously, the church of St Stephanos, on the grounds of the monastery, houses the Holy Madonna, which was painted around 1434, as well as glass-sided coffins containing the mummified remains of several of the former emperors of Ethiopia.

The monks jointly produce and market the monastery coffee. The coffee produced is only washed coffees. Working with the Amhara Development Association, micro pulpers and Ethiopian coffee experts to ensure a high quality washing process, it enables the monasteries to repair the roofs of the monasteries in order to protect the cultural treasures kept there.

There are other coffees available on the market cited as "Lake Tana".

To our knowledge, they are unwashed and produced on the mainland, rather than on the monastery islands.

Our coffee is exclusively Genuine Lake Tana Monastery Island coffee.

The net weight of the coffee bags is one feresula (Abyssinian weight) which equals 17 kg.