Meet the owners of Konjo Coffee - selling Ethiopian coffee

Husband and wife Adam Reeve, 59, and Eden Dashe, 44, run Konjo Coffee, an Ethiopian coffee business which involves them sourcing, shipping and branding their own coffee, selling it packaged and fresh from their coffee cart in Salisbury.

It all began with Eden, who grew up in Ethiopia and developed a love for coffee while performing a daily ritual called the Jebena Buna ceremony.

Eden said: "It [the ceremony] is a very social way of drinking coffee where friends and neighbours can visit. The coffee is hand roasted, ground and poured from the Jebena (a clay coffee pot with a tall spout).

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"The grounds are left to settle while the coffee is boiling and then served in small handle-less cups called Siene."

Initially just selling packaged coffee, three months ago the couple took the plunge to invest in a coffee cart and sell freshly made coffee to takeaway.

Adam said: “We used to sit in a little gazebo in the pouring rain, cold and wet weather and Eden became known as the ‘coffee lady’, and her packaged coffee became really popular and people started asking why she didn’t sell drinking coffee.

“I said let's take the next step and buy something more permanent so we bought the horsebox- which people love. It’s very recognisable, it’s progressed from there. On the first Saturday we did it, we had a constant queue of about 10 or 15 people.”

Konjo Coffee can be purchased on the Market Square on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the new green cart.

Adam Reeve and Eden Dashe (Image: Eden Desalgne)

The coffee plant, Coffea arabica, is indigenous to Ethiopia, and Eden is passionate about promoting high quality, Ethiopian coffee that she has specially selected and sourced herself. 

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Eden said: "I love to share my knowledge and love for coffee, especially since coming to the UK. We do have national suppliers but I prefer to source and select my own beans from Ethiopia. This is especially important when roasting higher grade naturally processed beans as our customers are looking for consistency in taste.

"I enjoy serving my coffee to people. Just a nod of appreciation and a nice comment really makes my day."

Adam added: “When you offer them something that actually has taste to it for the same price, it’s really about educating people - we’re trying to educate people to appreciate good coffee. It’s similar to wine really, there’s similar characteristics to it.

“Why would you not buy a coffee that you can really appreciate and tastes fantastic?”

You can see all the products on the Konjo Coffee website here.