Fine red mitmita chili powder in a small bowl beside dried chilies

Mitmita, Fine Grind

Bird's eye chili, korerima and clove, milled for kitfo and tibs

Mitmita is the hotter, finer cousin of berbere, and ours is milled to a powder so it coats meat evenly rather than sitting on top. The blend leans on bird's eye chili with korerima, clove and a touch of cardamom, ground in small runs at a cooperative mill near Wolkite. It is meant for kitfo, tibs and anything that wants heat without the sweetness of a full berbere. The 100g pouch is the usual starting size; 250g and 500g suit households that cook kitfo often.

Grind: Fine powder, coats meat evenly
Heat: High, chili-forward with no sweetness
Pouch sizes: 100g, 250g, 500g resealable
Best for: Kitfo, tibs, grilled meats, raw beef dishes

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Mitmita, Fine Grind

Selam Bekele runs sourcing and quality for the mitmita line. She grew up between Addis Ababa and a family plot outside Wolkite, and she still visits the cooperative mill there two or three times a year to check how the bird's eye chili is dried before it goes under the stone. Most of what she does is unglamorous: arguing about moisture levels, rejecting a run that smells flat, and rewriting batch notes so a cook in Cape Town can tell a March harvest from a September one.

Her rule for this grind is simple. If the powder does not coat raw beef evenly for kitfo, it does not leave the mill. That is why the mitmita is milled fine in small runs rather than blended into a larger batch with the berbere, and why the korerima and clove are weighed separately instead of tipped in by eye.

She also writes the recipe cards that ship with most orders, including the kitfo and tibs notes that pair with this pouch. If a batch tastes hotter or more resinous than the last one, she flags it in the note rather than pretending every harvest is identical.