Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Faven Getacho. My company is Afroshiba Coffee. We import coffee from Ethiopia Mainly. That's our majority of our coffees. We roast locally and we sell by online, amazon and through to restaurants, cafes, delis, wholesale.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Awesome, and could you give me a little bit of a background about how you got into this industry and making coffee and maybe a little bit of the history of Ethiopia and its coffee Sure?

Speaker 1: 1:01

So for us, for Ethiopia, coffee is just like water it's part of you. So for us, coffee is cultural. It is more like a community. Our coffee ceremony is about an hour to two hours long and you have this little cups that for your coffees and our kettle is. It's called jibana. It's like a ceramic pot. You roast the coffee in front of your guests and then you go around have them smell it, then grind, grind and then have coffee. So that is part of the culture. Coffee is part of the culture. The reason behind it is because legend has it, around 750 to 800 AD, a goat herder named Khaldi discovered coffee. He saw his goats were after kind of eating these berries. They have way too much energy, they're just jumping around and all that stuff. So he took that berries and gave it to the local monk and that's how coffee was discovered, like 880. And then from there it went to Yemen, from Yemen all around the world.

Speaker 2: 2:16

I have never heard this story, so thank you for sharing. That's amazing. I didn't know like you're from Ethiopia.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Yeah, so that's the origin of coffee, and the rest is history. Now the world runs on coffee right Exactly. Thank you, ethiopia.

Speaker 2: 2:28

And now tell me how you decided to start your coffee business.

Speaker 1: 2:38

So I've had a marketing company since right after undergrad and then went to grad school. That was right before COVID, like, grad school ended in August and then March, everything was closed. So, as I was thinking about, what do I really want? What do you contribute to society? You know all these things, that all you have all that time to think for yourself and you, you know, redirect your, you know your life. So coffee is something I you know. I am a coffee lover since the age of like under 10, right, so that's something I love. I would love to more people to know about the origin of coffee, as opposed to, I love coffee, but do you know how coffee came to be? So that's part of it. It's doing something I love from my own country and history. So it's like everything kind of intertwined and it just made sense I love that.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Um, you brought your coffee here today if you wanted to show us and share a little bit about the flavors that they have this is from the region called guji's.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Most of coffee from ethiopia comes from the southern uh part of ethiopia because it's high altitude coffee, so the reeds. So when you see Ethiopian Sidama, guji, those are the name of the regions. Okay, so this one, this Sirga Jaffe, is what's mostly known of Ethiopian coffee. Whenever coffee companies sell Ethiopian coffee, it's usually this that they sell this is the well-known Ethiopian coffee. Whenever coffee companies sell Ethiopian coffee, it's usually this that they sell this is the well-known Ethiopian coffee. The second one is this, the Sidama coffee. It's also around the same region. Most people use this when they do coffee blends because the flavor is really good and it kind of gives coffee good flavor. Gucci is the lighter of all this. This I recommend to people that drink mostly tea and don't like coffee. This would be the best one. Even without sugar you can drink it.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Wow, okay so.

Speaker 1: 4:52

I've converted a few people from tea drinker to coffee drinker Perfect.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Perfect. Okay, and how did you come up with your name? Afro Sheba Coffee. Hopefully I pronounced that right.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Yes. So Afro Sheba is to go with Africa, because you know, right here, with our logo, africa, that's where coffee is from. Sheba has two meanings. Two meanings One is Queen Sheba, the Ethiopian Queen Sheba that traveled to King David and Israel, came back to Ethiopia and had the part of the true cross it's believed. And the other one is Sheba is my sister's name.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Oh perfect.

Speaker 1: 5:28

So it kind of goes together Exactly.

Speaker 2: 5:30

I love that. I love that you share so much of your culture and history everything on there. I think that's share so much of your like culture and history, everything on there.

Speaker 1: 5:36

I think that's wonderful, absolutely, and for people, when people buy this coffee they have on the back we have written all the the cultural meaning of coffee and how it's celebrated love that, so a little educational and for marketing.

Speaker 2: 5:53

How are you getting the word out about your coffee and like these fun little facts about them? I think that would be so great on social media for you to share that with other people and just have a more intimate relationship with the coffee in that way. Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 6:07

So our company is only two and a half years old, so the first year was spent with, you know, the design, the name, the trademark. It took like the whole seven, eight months. We just wanted to be just right. So the part that I was telling you about is this one. So you have the meaning back here. This is how they make coffee and this is the little cups and this is the size of it. It's like maybe six ounces, because coffee is strong, it's really strong. So we wanted to get all the cultural aspect of coffee without overwhelming you with you know in-your-face kind of culture. So it took us a while to come up with this design and then the trademark name, and then getting the right roasting temperature, because when it's light it's bitter and then you will have aftertaste. When it's darker, when it's not supposed to do, then you'll have this muddy aftertaste. So getting the right temperature took us a little bit with experimenting, and we have a few Ethiopian restaurants that we were working with. So those were the people we first approached, because we know they'll give us grease. If it's not good, they'll be like okay, this is bitter, cut it out. If it's muddy, it'll be like. So once we perfected that.

Speaker 1: 7:29

That was the first year. The second year is marketing. We haven't done a lot of social media yet, but word of mouth kind of kept us busy because we sell our raw coffee to roasters as well, so that part of the business has been busy. It's just like people will recommend us to their other roasters and that kind of way, and we started Amazon just in November, so that kept us busy. So this year that I'm thinking of this is the plan to kind of fall out. You know, do social media? Tiktok has been on our site. You know we have reps that we work with, so that's the you'll see more of us.

Speaker 2: 8:09

Yeah, perfect. I love that you've got a plan in place.

Speaker 1: 8:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Which brings me to my next question is what are your, I guess, personal goals and where do you hope to be in the next five years as a person and with your coffee business?

Speaker 1: 8:21

as a coffee business, I wanted to, uh, have a bigger role, uh and uh, the goal of, you know, introducing our culture for to majority of people. Just bring awareness. This is where coffee came from. This is the history and you know you can't just when you drink coffee. You have to think about this. It's kind of interconnected. We have had, a few years ago, a big, a bigger coffee company wanted to this was when we were kids wanted to trademark this name, irgajaé, and there was an all-out lawsuit with the government because this is part of a city name, right, and you can't just come up and Trade market just because you're a big company. So this is also because a lack of awareness for more people. If people were aware this is where coffee came from, this is the region, then nobody would come and be like I'm going to own that name. You know it's the peoples.

Speaker 2: 9:23

Yes.

Speaker 1: 9:24

So it's just more of sharing our culture. Egypt is one of the oldest nations in the world I've never been colonized, the oldest Christian nation. And Egypt is one of the oldest nations in the world I've never been colonized, the oldest Christian nation, the oldest Bible, complete Bible. And it's just. There's so much history that I think it's my responsibility to share too, along with the coffee.

Speaker 2: 9:44

No, absolutely, with good coffee. Yes, putting some good I guess a good name on it. It is good coffee and we want to represent all of that right and there's so many unique things about the country itself.

Speaker 1: 9:57

We have 13 months instead of 12. Whoa, you know right. Instead of 31 days, all months are equal 30. And then the five days or six days every leap year is another month, so the country is called 13 months of sunshine.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Okay, I just learned so much today about coffee, about where it came from. I don't think I ever stopped to think where coffee comes from. I was just like Starbucks or something like that. Terribly, see how marketing works. Yeah, I just never stopped to think about that. So this is going to be quite a surprise maybe for some people, or maybe I was like. I already knew that. Thank you so much. I already knew that I hope.

Speaker 2: 10:34

I hope they know that already all right, and then if you just want to set, like the coffee, right down here back, just so we can make sure we have everything, good, but thank you so much for bringing this in. This is awesome. Can you share maybe some intimate memories that you have growing up, maybe with your family, sharing some moments with the coffee and how that played a big part in your life?

Speaker 1: 10:56

so, um, not just me, but as a culture. It's uh, when we have people come over to visit or when you're having my grandmother or my grandfather usually visit us when we are out of school, um, so every night you'll have the coffee ceremony. It's like you have the mat out, a special mat for the coffee, and then there's a special plate for the coffees and the mugs, and it's just. They'll have incense on, popcorns on, and it's just family. All around, incenses burning, you have popcorns and there's grass on the ground. It's just community. You just sit, just sit, talk. It's warm, it's cozy, it's family. You know, the kids are played with amongst ourselves, the adults are talking. So when you think of coffee, you think of community, family yeah that's our.

Speaker 2: 11:47

That's part of what coffee means to us to get back to that as a society, because when I think of coffee, I think man, we're on the go, we're so busy Like it's not relaxing, it's like okay, I need something to like oh man, I'm stressed, I need coffee. I haven't slept.

Speaker 1: 12:02

It's just so chaotic, but the way you describe it's just so intimate and just so community-based and beautiful, like you just said. Grass, like yeah, you have grass, popcorn, incense, coffee, it's everything it. And they roasted it right in front of you. So people have neighbors coming in and it's just. You know people will gossip if they want politics everything under the sun would be discussed in that two hours, and then everybody goes about their business and that happens like twice a day sometimes oh my gosh, like we're so chaotic and busy.

Speaker 2: 12:35

It's like maybe, maybe some people do like get a coffee and read a book or something relaxing.

Speaker 1: 12:39

But yeah, majority of the time I just majority is on the go crazy but this, it's so tiny cups that you, you, you do nothing but sit and talk and you know, sip of your coffee, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 12:52

Yeah, what have been some of the challenges for you starting your business and how have you overcome them?

Speaker 1: 12:58

For anybody who's maybe listening and wanting to hear some insight or tips For business, starting a business this is the third business that I've started, so I've started with, you know, with experience. So for when I started a new business, uh, usually I mentorship is what's uh missing. You know there's, you can't. You can google all you want, but one good mentor would kind of completely change everything, the trajectory of your business, right. So the first time I didn't even know where you find mentor or if it's available, so you rely on Google. But as you go now, now that I know you can tap into a local support system like Score, a local support system like score a score, they will, you will have a mentor with diff.

Speaker 1: 13:54

There there's different mentors, different uh industries that you, which is free, those people uh volunteer their time so you can they have score. We have the uh. Even fairfax county has their own uh community centers with mentors that could help you set up your paperwork, all that stuff. The difference now is we wanted to protect the name right from the get-go before we get more marketing and all that done. So we learned from the past. So we had our trademark together with all our paperwork filed, because we know trademark takes about 18 months. So we filed last year, so we just got the okay and we'll get our trademark probably in the next few weeks.

Speaker 2: 14:40

Yay, congratulations. So mentorship matters.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Networking matters and always have a plan, but be open to change, because you never know what happens. Yeah, thank you for sharing that, that's some good insight there.

Speaker 2: 14:52

Have a plan, but be open to change, because you never know what happens. You know, yeah, thank you for sharing that. That's some good insight there, thank, you. Who are you outside of a person and you're not thinking about coffee and running your business. What do you like to do and how do you set boundaries for yourself?

Speaker 1: 15:09

Well setting boundaries has been. It's a learning experience. Right Right before COVID, my sister and I went to Tony Robbins event. That's one of those three day events and on this I think it was is it on the first day or second day? You will have Tony Robbins from, like I don't know, 10 o'clock in the morning, or it's like 12 hours kind of thing. Oh my, that high.

Speaker 1: 15:37

And it is a long time. But at the end of that, at midnight, they will have you go and, with consent of course, walk on that charcoal. Right, that hot, Wait, barefoot, Barefoot Girl. So, and they it's like they're hyping you up when you're walking on that. They're like don't look at the charcoal, don't call, just walk. You can do this, blah, blah, blah. And then we did walk. So which, what I got from there is what you tell your mind to. You can do it Like it's a hot charcoal. It was like bright red and nothing happened to my feet, you didn't burn, I didn't burn or anything, and it's just like. After that, I don't know, something clicked. I'm like I just need to focus and see, do I really want this? If it is just focus and do it, I'm not going to walk on charcoal again. I was going to ask you I'm not going to do that again, but that kind of really changed some kind of mindset of you have to do. If you like what you're doing, then you will find a way to do it.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Yeah absolutely and with, as opposed to boundaries. My mom always says when you're with somebody and you're, you know you're talking whatever, whatever. After you leave that person, you have to tune in and see how you feel. Do you feel drained, do you feel energized? Do you feel nothing? If you feel drained, then that's your way of showing that it's not a good relationship or a good friendship or anything. So you just have to be aware of how you feel, your emotions, and then you set boundaries based on that.

Speaker 2: 17:23

Gotcha. What if you feel nothing? Is that good or bad?

Speaker 1: 17:26

then it's. It's fine, it's just as long as they don't drain you okay, got it.

Speaker 2: 17:31

You know, I'm just like wait, I don't feel nothing sometimes that's fine.

Speaker 1: 17:34

But if they drain you and you're just like after you leave, you're just like oh you know, gotcha, why? Why give energy okay?

Speaker 2: 17:42

yeah, um, but what do you like to do, like? How do you do you unwind? Do you like reading books? You go on motorcycles, walks on the beach. Tell me I do kickboxing.

Speaker 1: 17:51

Oh okay, I do kickboxing and I do have the. I do it at home as well. I have my nephews. I have a two year old nephew and an 11 year old nephew. The 11 year old obviously thinks he's old enough so he doesn't hang out, but to the two-year-old is just, you know, he's just one of the best thing that ever happened. So I do love spending time with my nephews and my sisters okay and we go around.

Speaker 1: 18:19

You know just restaurants and coffees and you know my. We have my cousins too. So family is I'd rather spend time with family. That gives me energy.

Speaker 2: 18:30

Sweet. I never would have fought kickboxing because you look so sweet. I mean sweet people can do kickboxing too. But I'm like I can beat her in a fight. No, I can't, I absolutely cannot. I'm going to lose. But yeah, I think these things in my head.

Speaker 2: 18:44

I'm like I could take her on but, uh, yeah, I think these things I could take her on. I know I'm just kidding, I'm totally kidding. Um, sorry, um, and if you could leave a message for our audience, what would that message be? Or if there's maybe like a mantra or a saying that you like to live your life by, share that with us hmm, mantra that I'd like to leave my life by.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Hmm, I think, in business or in life, like I was telling you earlier, spend your time with people that mean something to you that breathes life into you, because there are people that are energy vampires. There are people that are energy vampires. There are people that just you know, take, take, take. So, just when you're spending time with, either with even family, family or friends, just be with somebody that's, you know, breathing life into you, whether it's in business. You know, that's my mantra. Okay, be aware, gotcha.

Speaker 2: 19:47

And my final question, just in case I didn't touch on anything and maybe there was an event or something that you wanted to share with people, did I hit all the?

Speaker 1: 19:55

marks for you we did. One more thing that we do that's also connected to Afro Shiba is I do have started a non-profit about seven years ago. The non-profit is for girls kindergarten age and up back in Ethiopia and we support them with uniforms and school supplies and hopefully we'll grow into school meals. It's been seven years so I've had kids that were in pre-KG and all the way to like sixth grade now. So we started that right after a couple years, after grads, undergrad, after I watched a documentary that's called Walk to Beautiful.

Speaker 1: 20:43

It's about, you know, getting married early because of family and having children and having problems with that, and on that they were following this 16-year-old that had this problem and she was sitting on one of the stairs and she's like kind of really deep thinking and she said you know, I don't know what my life is. I don't want to go back to the husband If I go back home. She didn't have a mother. Then Her mother died. So she said if I go back home, then my dad would send me back to the husband. She said I can't commit suicide because that's a sin. And she said I don't know what to do.

Speaker 1: 21:22

Oh, man, and she's 16. At 16, you're worrying about prom, he likes you and all that stuff, and that just stuck with me. And they follow her a few months after that, maybe six, seven months after that, and somebody saw her history story and they took her in so she can go to school, continue her school, and she's working at an orphanage, I believe. And when they're interviewing her she's like completely different, you know, now she has a different outlook in life and she's like oh, I'm going to school Once I'm done, I'm going to do this.

Speaker 2: 22:00

She has this X, y and Z kind of plan. She has that self-worth Exactly.

Speaker 1: 22:02

That self-worth Exactly. So my take for that is if we get two girls while they're still young from underserved community and get them education, then they decide their life.

Speaker 2: 22:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:16

So that's how Path For Her was born, okay.

Speaker 2: 22:21

And it's called Path For Her.

Speaker 1: 22:22

PathForHerorg yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:24

No, that is incredible. That is such a great non-profit that you decided to start and the fact that you watched this documentary and it was so powerful and just inspired you to do that is amazing, so thank you so much for being on the podcast and for sharing your awesome history with coffee and sharing everything.

Speaker 1: 22:40

This was fun. It was let's do it again absolutely.