Ethiopian Coffee Origin Travel Notes - Why Can Ethiopian Coffee Beans Sell at High Prices

I imagine Ethiopia must be quite familiar to most coffee enthusiasts.

This magical country holds an unparalleled position in the coffee world.

This is not only because Ethiopia is the birthplace of world coffee.

There's a saying: good coffee is grown. The excellent flavor, high quality, and rich taste of coffee beans are innate.

Sidamo Region

This time we're featuring Sidamo from Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has three very famous producing regions: Harar, Yirgacheffe, and Sidamo.

In Ethiopia, 90% of coffee beans come from gardens, forests, and semi-forests.

Many processing stations sit 1-2 kilometers from the coffee collection areas.

Whether it's bringing fruits to the processing station or transporting processed beans, everything must be carried by hand.

Generally, Ethiopian small coffee farmers have cultivation areas of less than one hectare. In various regions, exporters invest in sun-dried or washed processing plants, buying raw beans from smallholders for centralized processing and shipment. There are also production cooperatives formed by regional smallholders who jointly invest in sun-dried or washed plants.

Processing station owners pay high prices for coffee cherries, so people from several mountains away are willing to sell their cherries to them.

They transport the coffee cherries to the processing plants.

Processing stations also issue special ID cards to farmers.

Some workers sort beans as well.

Good coffee beans are selected and exported to earn foreign currency.

The Sidamo region is relatively affluent and uses the washed processing method.

Processing Methods

To remove mucilage, the beans must pass through water channels.

Harvested berries are processed through a depulping machine that separates most of the pulp from the coffee beans.

Then the parchment beans are guided to a clean water tank and soaked in water for fermentation to completely remove the remaining pulp layer.

Traditional Sidamo uses ancient sun-dried processing methods, where sun-drying brings a slight fermentation and fruity aromas.

This is sun-dried coffee fruit. Coffee farmers must dry six pounds of mature red coffee cherries on grass mats by the fields to produce one pound of natural dry coffee.

They spread the coffee cherries in the sun for 15 days, turning them every few minutes to ensure even drying, then remove the husks.

The dried beans feel crunchy.

Slightly inferior coffee beans are kept for the farmers' own consumption.

A stove, a roasting pan, cups and saucers, and a few scattered seats form a simple "coffee shop."

This ancient and simple ritual lets you experience the joy of tasting authentic coffee.

Roasted coffee beans are poured into a cylindrical mortar.

An iron rod is used to pound the coffee beans. By the time the water boils, she completes about ten minutes of pounding.

Then the coffee is poured from the mortar into the boiling iron kettle.

Ethiopians drink coffee at least three times a day, with different names: "Abol, Tona, and Bereka."

Every household is equipped with coffee pots and charcoal stoves.

Serving a cup of coffee is as natural as brewing a cup of hot tea for guests.

A few green leaves similar to mimosa are sprinkled in.

This plant is called Tena Adam, a local spice used specifically for steeping in coffee.

The purely bitter coffee leaves a sweet aftertaste.

This is the local lunch for Ethiopians.

(The editor admits their ignorance.)

Research Centers

Then we visited the Jimma Agricultural Product Research Center.

They have been researching the best coffee bean varieties there.

They crossbreed different types of coffee trees.

Since Geisha Mountain is near Jimma, we asked about Geisha Mountain. The current Panamanian Geisha seeds come from Beberka in Geisha Mountain. Geisha Mountain lies on the border between Ethiopia and Sudan. Because the border is quite dangerous, Ethiopians previously dared not grow Geisha extensively there. Americans, however, were bolder and had a base there. We originally planned to visit, but the Ethiopians dared not take us because it is somewhat dangerous for them.

Occasionally, rain may fall during drying.

Locals cover the coffee beans with tarps in advance.

Every coffee bean is hard-won.

Coffee goes through seed selection, seedling cultivation, planting, harvesting, processing, and transportation.

Coffee farmers give coffee beans their first life.

Roasters give coffee beans their second life.

Baristas give coffee beans their third life.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia's garden-grown coffees are the heart of this travel story, and FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe selections bring that same origin character into your cup. The FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe is the classic introduction to the region, with white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a clean tea-like body at a price that suits daily drinking. The FrontStreet Gedingding Cooperative is a traditional washed single-village lot from Woka, delivering refined citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine florals and none of the bitterness people sometimes expect from coffee. For the dried-fruit richness described in this journey, the FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry is dried whole for three to five weeks and shows citrus acidity, berry juice, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.