In 2018 ST ALi’s green coffee buyer Lucy Ward, while at a cupping in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, met a young man named Ture Waji for the first time. Little did she know that serendipitous meeting would change her buying career forever.
That day Ture presented a number of coffees on the cupping table that, one after another, blew Lucy away - outshining everything else on offer and cementing Ture in her mind as a producer to watch. Ture, who is known as ‘The King of Guji’, traveled with Lucy and the ST. ALi crew for the next week, living up to his nickname by taking them on a whirlwind tour of the region including a memorable visit to one of the family owned washing stations in Shakiso.
It took a few more years of persistence to secure Ture’s coffee for ST ALi, but now we are proud to say we offer multiple lots from him every year, and have yet to be disappointed.