The Story of Guji Coffee Region_Guji and Gurji Coffee Bean Characteristics_How Much Does Guji Coffee Cost

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Guji Coffee: Ethiopia's Rising Star

Guji Coffee is undoubtedly the most attention-grabbing coffee region in recent years. The local residents are the Guji Oromo people, and coffee is the core crop cultivated by this highland ethnic group. For decades, coffee produced in Guji was classified under the Sidamo region. However, regardless of geographical location, cultivation methods, or coffee flavor characteristics, southern Guji stands out as distinctly different from both Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. After years of persistent efforts to persuade the Ethiopian government, Guji finally established its own identity and was distinguished from Sidamo in regional designation.

Geographical and Administrative Challenges

Information available from Asia is relatively scarce compared to European and American sources. Moreover, Ethiopia has undergone two administrative reorganizations in the past two decades. After 2008, the establishment of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) led to the reclassification of coffee regions based on their growing importance and coffee production dynamics. Sometimes, the reputation and significance of a coffee region far exceed its administrative level, making this information particularly challenging for "foreigners" to comprehend. I experienced these difficulties firsthand while researching information about Yirgacheffe.

Online information about Guji is often either vague or contradictory. For example, the following data from two different websites show inconsistent descriptions of Guji's geographical location, suggesting that at least one source is unreliable—or perhaps both are. Therefore, we can only rely on Wikipedia for accuracy. According to the Wikipedia Guji Zone coordinates, when plotted on Google Maps, the Guji coffee region appears to the west of Ethiopia's geographical center, while Sidamo is positioned slightly south of the geographical center.

This coffee is grown in the Guji area of southern Ethiopia's Sidama (previously Sidamo) province.

This is a coffee from a remote area of the Sidamo district, quite far from where most Sidamo coffees originate. In fact, it is mostly known for the large gold mine in the area, and sadly the local tensions between mine workers and farmers becomes open conflict.

What I consider more reliable information comes from an Australian coffee merchant's website, which simply states that starting in 2015, Guji "spread its wings" and became independent, no longer being a subsidiary region under Sidamo:

Sidamo is a province in the southern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Irgalem, and after 1978 at Awasa. ... The coffee growing region of Guji once was included in the Sidama designation, but in the year 2015 was recognized and separated as a distinct zone by the ECX. The merit for this new classification lies in the unique high quality of coffees from Guji, which include the woreda of Oddo Shakiso, Addola Redi, Uraga, Kercha, and Bule Hora. Larger private farms are becoming more commonplace in Shakiso, which also happens to be a hotbed of mining for precious metals.

Quality and Environmental Advantages

According to information from a Taiwanese coffee merchant, Guji's average altitude is above 1,800 meters (some say 1,800-2,200 meters), with fertile soil and significant day-night temperature differences, providing excellent terroir conditions for growing specialty coffee. Based on my personal tasting experience, it offers typical citrus notes with excellent fruit acidity. Among the coffee beans I have tasted, its cost-performance ratio is definitely in the top three.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

Unfortunately, the southern part of the Guji zone, particularly the most famous coffee-producing area Shakiso, is also a renowned gold mining region. Due to factors involving miners, land disputes, and ethnic conflicts, the Guji area frequently experiences open conflicts and suppression. Because of this instability, maintaining and harvesting coffee requires additional manpower and costs. When I encountered information about these conflicts and suppressions, I immediately thought of two key terms: blood diamonds and fair trade. When we taste specialty coffee from Africa, can the price we pay and what Africans "receive" be measured on the same scale?

Guji Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Guji coffee beans - Hambela Flower Queen 2.0 coffee beans - offer full assurance in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value, with each 227-gram package priced at only about 98 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee beans per cup, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, costing only about 6 yuan per cup. This represents a conscientious recommendation compared to coffee shops that often sell cups for tens of yuan each.

FrontStreet Coffee: A Guangzhou-based coffee roastery with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services at: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473