Ethiopian Coffee | Kaffa Forest Coffee | Semi-Wild Washed Coffee Beans

Coffee Details

Country: Ethiopia

Cooperative: Baraka Cooperative

Region: Kaffa Forest

Variety: Ethiopian Heirloom

Processing: Washed

Harvest: 2016 crop

Cupping Notes

This is a very special coffee, and pinning down its exact origin is genuinely difficult. All we know for certain is that it comes from the remote forests of "Kaffa" in Ethiopia.

The Kaffa coffee forests are studied as the birthplace of coffee itself, spread across the country's western and southwestern regions. Legend holds that tens of thousands of coffee varieties remain undiscovered in these woods.

This lot is essentially harvested straight from the forest by local farmers, or drawn from small patches of semi-wild coffee that farmers tend by hand to raise yields.

The dry fragrance is extraordinary: delicate sweetness, honey, whole-wheat biscuit, and cinnamon, with a whisper of florals. Add hot water and the wet aroma turns to toffee, jasmine tea, and roasted hazelnut — an arresting combination.

In the cup it is clean with wild undertones, bright and tea-like — Earl Grey and black tea. Everything is beautifully balanced: a creamy body, the sweetness of melon, and citrus acidity. A genuinely fascinating coffee.

The Origin of Ethiopian Coffee

Ethiopia's primeval Kaffa jungle is unlike any cultivated farm. The coffee trees here grow within a wild forest ecosystem, sheltered beneath the rainforest canopy, while fallen branches and leaves serve as the finest organic fertilizer.

Many people believe Ethiopia is where coffee began: the first coffee tree was discovered in ancient "Abyssinia" — present-day Ethiopia. The region where these trees flourished was called "Kaffa," the trees themselves "kafa" — quite possibly the original pronunciation of the word coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a taste of wild-forest Ethiopian coffee, FrontStreet's own Kaffa Forest lot is the most direct route. Unlike the backyard garden plots of typical smallholders, the Kaffa forest is celebrated for truly wild coffee: trees growing under shade at 1,400–2,100 meters, sustained by an untouched ecosystem, a unique microclimate, red-earth soils, and abundant rainfall. Roasted medium-light, FrontStreet's Kaffa Forest coffee carries an unmistakable white-floral fragrance, a bright lemony acidity, notes of sweet orange and bergamot, and a finish that recalls melon fruit and nuts with the light body of green tea — a cup that tastes precisely like the birthplace of coffee.

If you'd like to explore more of what Ethiopia does best, the FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe is the classic starting point: clear jasmine florals and lively citrus acidity from a cool, misty highland town where thousands of coffee varieties thrive, giving a cup as refreshing and clean as lemon tea. And for the wilder, sun-dried expression of the same origin, the FrontStreet Natural Huakui from the Hambella district of Guji, Sidamo — dried for 21 days on raised beds and turned constantly to ensure even drying and keep mold and earthy taints away — offers a light fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango, with honeyed sweetness, cocoa, a hint of spice, and a thick, enduring finish.