I moved from Ethiopia to Shetland - and I've brought the coffee with me

BBC

Shetland has plenty of honesty boxes – filled with fresh eggs, home baking and even pies.

However, the 1,000 or so residents on the island of Whalsay have recently got one offering something a little more unusual – hand-roasted Ethiopian coffee.

It has been provided by Netsanet Sori, also known as Netsi, who moved to the island in October 2025 after spending nine years in Orkney.

Raised on the family coffee farm in rural Ethiopia, she has brought a flavour of her native culture to her new home about 4,000 miles (6,400km) away.

Netsanet Sori

Netsi’s mother died when she was young, and she was raised by her grandmother and great-grandmother on the farm where she had to “grow up fast”.

“How I was raised there, compared to here, it’s completely different,” she said.

Since moving to Scotland, she has used coffee to stay connected to home, importing beans from the farm where she grew up.

“It’s very important to me and I will teach my children about it as well,” she added.

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Preparing and drinking coffee is an important daily ritual in Ethiopia with members of the community, mainly women, coming together to take part in a traditional ceremony.

“Neighbours and villagers gather once or twice in a day to share information, good news or bad news, and love,” Netsi said.

“It’s also about community belonging. If you make a coffee, you can’t drink it alone.

“You have to share what you have and help others.”

Hand roasting coffee beans is a slow, careful process.

When the beans arrive in Whalsay, they are a light green colour with a subtle, earthy aroma.

They are then cleaned and roasted in the same pot and to ensure the roast is as even as possible, the beans must be constantly shaken as they heat.

As they cook, the beans darken to a rich brown and begin to release an oil, something Netsi says is a sign of good quality coffee.

Traditionally, the beans are ground with a tool resembling a mortar and pestle but, for the sake of speed, Netsi now uses a small electric grinder.

While living and working in Orkney, Netsi said she roasted coffee only for herself, as well as for friends and charity events.

But after moving to Whalsay, she decided to turn her passion into a business.

“After a little research, I realised that nobody else is roasting coffee like this in Shetland,” she said.

“So, I thought I can do it, and it’s worked brilliantly. People seem to really like it.”

Ingrid Sutherland

Ingrid Sutherland, who lives on the island, has been buying the coffee since she first discovered it at a Christmas fair.

“I’m a bit of a coffee drinker, I love a good cup of coffee in the morning,” she said.

“Real coffee, not instant, so I was just blown away with how cool it is.

“It’s local as well, so I can just nip along the road and get a bag, rather than going out of the isle.

“We have plenty of egg boxes and cake fridges here in Shetland, but we didn’t have a coffee box.

“It’s fantastic to have a coffee box here.”

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