Introducing our new Alps Artist Edition, featuring local artists in Hallingdal and beyond. Creativity, coffee, and collaborations will always be part of the Scandinavian Alps ethos. The first artist collaboration is with Ben Siegenthaler from Switzerland, who now resides in Hemsedal with his Norwegian wife and 3 small kids. When he is not being Super Dad he works for the community, star barista, and an outdoor adventure guide.
Title collage: The Animal Conflict
The Farm notes & story
Origin: Ethiopia
Washing Station: Ayla Bombe
Altitude (MASL): 2200
Process: natural
Harvest Season: Nov - Jan
Varieties: Heirloom
Taste Profile: Caramel, cooked strawberry, and jammy red grape flavors with clean fruit-like sweetness and winey acidity.
Testi Ayla Washing Station was founded in 2010 and became part of the Testi group in 2016. It now serves about 375 smallholder farmers in the village of Bombe in Sidama, near the Bombe Mountain. Producers here own an average of 2.5 hectares and grow varieties such as Mikicho and Setami, which are local coffees.
Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to a nearby washing station or central processing unit, where their coffee will be sorted, weighed, and paid for or given a receipt. Coffee is then processed, usually washed or natural, by the washing station and dried on raised beds.
The washing stations serve as many as several hundred to sometimes a thousand or more producers, who deliver cherry throughout the harvest season: The blending of these cherries into day lots makes it virtually impossible under normal circumstances to know precisely whose coffee winds up in which bags on what day, making traceability to the producer difficult. We do, however, make every available effort to source coffee from the same washing stations every year, through our export partners and their connections with mills and washing stations.
Typically farmers in this region don't have access to and therefore do not utilize fertilizers or pesticides in the production of coffee.
The artist's story
My name is Benjamin. I was born in 1979 in Horn, Austria, and grew up in the countryside of Switzerland with vast landscapes. As a young man I moved to Zürich, where the view of the horizon is easily lost amid the avalanche of distracting city details. My art similarly travels between two poles: between spacious installations and intricate paintings; between raw sculptures and witty collages. Currently I continue my work in Hemsedal, Norway.
Since my education as a stone sculptor, I have carried around a sketchbook filled with small, abstract drawings that capture how I view the world. Like sifting soil to find gold, my work process starts with going through this sketchbook to pull out any nuggets of inspiration, which become the subjects of my creative vision. To bring life to this vision, I use conventional, easily obtainable materials and work in a meticulously planned manner, always with an eye for detail. The results are abstract pieces that simultaneously celebrate contrast and harmony, tension and resolve—all by accentuating often-forgotten forms in everyday life.
I believe God is in the tensions of this world, and my art is created from a deep sense of relationship with Jesus Christ. Yet just as I prefer not to draw a straight line in my works, neither do I want to force a meaning upon those who view my artistic expressions. My work is not a religious statement or the fruit of a messiah complex, but instead comes from a foundational truth that drives my life.
Bens portfolio and work for sale:
https://benjaminsiegenthaler.com/
