Iron Lion: The Community Lot Behind the Name

Jazz Fruits is DAK Coffee Roasters' evocative name for a specific Ethiopian natural lot they source in ongoing collaboration with Daye Bensa — identified internally as the "Iron Lion" community lot from Bensa, Sidama. Like all of DAK's naming philosophy (Cream Donut, Strawberry Kiss, Milky Cake), the product name communicates the cup experience directly: Jazz Fruits signals a vibrant, multi-layered fruit profile — the kind of expressively juicy natural that plays like an improvised jazz riff across the palate.

DAK describe it plainly: "One of the best picks we've made in terms of price versus quality in the cup." For a roastery built on experimental, premium fermented lots, this is a meaningful statement — Iron Lion sits at the accessible end of DAK's catalogue, a natural designed to be genuinely crowd-pleasing without sacrificing specialty quality. Strawberry, white chocolate, and orange are the headline notes; beneath them, a creamy chocolate foundation that makes it as satisfying in milk-based drinks as it is as a long black.

Daye Bensa: The Company Behind Ethiopia's Sidama Revolution

Daye Bensa Coffee Export PLC was founded in 1996 by brothers Asefa and Mulugeta Dukamo in the city of Daye, in the Bensa region of Sidama. They started with a single washing station and a vision: to capture the extraordinary quality potential of Sidama's high-elevation coffee and connect it to international specialty buyers. That vision succeeded on a remarkable scale. Today, Daye Bensa operates 71 washing stations, 11 dry mills, and three farms across Sidama, Guji, Bale, and West Arsi — making it one of the top five largest Ethiopian coffee exporters by volume and one of the most internationally respected by quality.

The company works with over 2,000 smallholder farmer out-growers who deliver cherries to their network of washing stations. It has invested heavily in community infrastructure — schools, water projects, farmer training — and participates in Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade certification programmes. Atrie, Asefa Dukamo's brother-in-law, manages a UK import office for Daye Bensa, specifically tasked with highlighting the Arbegona region of Sidama to European specialty buyers.

Sidama Bensa: The Terroir Context

Sidama is one of Ethiopia's most celebrated coffee-producing regions — a highland zone in the south of the country where altitudes reach 2,300 metres, rainfall is consistent and generous, and the deep, fertile soils support both forest coffee and smallholder cultivation. The Bensa sub-region within Sidama sits at the upper end of this altitude range, producing coffees with the delicate, complex character associated with slow cherry maturation at extreme elevation. Ethiopian heirloom landraces — the genetic population that makes up the Sidama cup's extraordinary diversity of aromatics — grow alongside JARC research station selections, most notably the 74112 variety that has become closely identified with Daye Bensa's washed lots.

For natural processing, Bensa's high elevation and relatively low humidity during the drying season create ideal conditions: slow, controlled drying that allows the fruit's sugars to migrate into the bean without the mould risk that lower-altitude naturals face. The result is a natural coffee with exceptional clarity — the Scenery Coffee description of Rumudamo naturals as "super juicy, floral and top-note dominated — as far from funky as a natural can be" captures exactly the style that Daye Bensa's natural lots aspire to.

DAK and Daye Bensa: An Ongoing Partnership

DAK Coffee Roasters (Amsterdam, founded 2019 by Louis-Philippe Boucher and Veronique Lagarde from Montreal — see Blog #1 for the full DAK story) sources multiple Ethiopian lots from Daye Bensa across different stations and processes. The ongoing partnership reflects shared values: both organisations prioritise traceability, quality consistency, and accessible pricing that brings specialty coffee to a wider audience. Jazz Fruits / Iron Lion is the most accessible entry point in that partnership — a natural that punches above its price point and converts filter coffee drinkers into specialty enthusiasts.

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