Ethiopian Coffee You Must Know: Ethiopian Coffee Bean Stories & Brand Recommendations
Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)
Africa is the world's third-largest coffee-producing region, and Ethiopia is the legendary birthplace of coffee! Yirgacheffe is one of Ethiopia's main coffee-producing areas. Located at an altitude of 1,700–2,100 meters, it primarily produces Arabica variety coffee beans. The region has an excellent microclimate with spring-like conditions year-round, making both natural and washed coffee beans equally outstanding!
The characteristics of Yirgacheffe coffee beans are: intense floral aroma, citrus fruit acidity and sweetness, and fresh tea fragrance! Yirgacheffe coffee beans have rich layers, delicate body, and a remarkably long aftertaste! Therefore, Yirgacheffe is truly a coffee that is captivating from name to taste, leaving an endless impression!
What You Must Know About the Homeland of Ethiopian Coffee
☕ Overview
Land area - 1,104,300 sq km
Capital - Addis Ababa
Trading city - Dire Dawa
Population - 102,374,044 (May 2017)
Languages spoken - Amharic (official), Oromo, Somali
☕ Producer Overview
Coffee practitioners - Approximately 700,000
Average plantation area - 1 hectare or less
Annual export volume - 3.5 million bags
☕ Coffee Overview
Producing regions - Sidama (including Yirgacheffe), Harrar, Limu, Djimma, Lekempti, Wallega, Gimbi
Coffee varieties - Ethiopian heirloom varieties including Kudhome, Gesha, Djimma, etc.
Processing methods - Washed, Natural
Grading standards (local) - Grades 1–9 (Gr 1–2 Specialty; Gr 3–9 Commercial)
Coffee bag weight - 60 kg
Harvest period - November-December
Arrival period - May-July
☕ Ethiopian Coffee History
Among coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia holds a legendary status, not only because it is the "birthplace" of Arabica coffee but also because, unlike most coffee-growing nations, coffee was not introduced as a colonial cash crop. Instead, cultivating, processing, and drinking coffee has been part of local daily life for centuries. Coffee plants first discovered growing in forests were gradually cultivated for household use and commercial sales.
From an outsider's perspective, Ethiopian coffee has incredibly complex cultural, political, and economic impacts that are difficult to fully comprehend. Ethiopia's genetic coffee diversity is unparalleled globally, with 99% of coffee variety genetics found in Ethiopia. Recent reports indicate that due to climate change and variety research, the genetic heritage of original Ethiopian coffee varieties is being threatened and should be protected.
Another unique aspect of Ethiopian coffee is its high domestic consumption, as coffee plays a vital role in Ethiopians' daily lives: of the country's annual production of 6.5 million bags, about half is consumed domestically, with approximately 3.5 million bags exported.
Coffee remains part of a traditional "ceremony" preparation, which is a way for family, friends, and partners to gather. The eldest woman in the household roasts coffee in a flat pan, then grinds it, and brews the coffee in a pot called a "jebena." She serves this thick coffee in small cups. Then fresh boiling water is added, and the coffee in the pot is brewed two more times. This process takes about an hour from start to finish and is a regular expression of hospitality.
Most Ethiopian coffee growers are smallholder farmers with less than 1 hectare of land; in many cases, this cultivation method should more accurately be called "garden coffee cultivation." There are some large private coffee farms, as well as cooperatives composed of small and medium-sized farms, where growers produce relatively small quantities of commercial green coffee beans.
☕ Coffee Processing Methods and Flavor Overview
Coffee is produced in several ways in Ethiopia. In large private estates, coffee picking, processing, and hulling are typically completed within the estate. At the other end, "garden coffee," independent farmers send their harvested coffee cherries to the nearest processing station, where their cherries are sold at a set price and mixed with other farmers' cherries for processing according to the station's requirements.
Additionally, cooperative members send their coffee cherries to cooperative-designated processing stations. This method provides better traceability because the coffee comes from fixed cooperative members. With increasing emphasis on coffee quality and industry transparency, coffee traceability becomes very important.
Ethiopian coffee flavors vary due to multiple factors, including variety, processing method, and the unique microclimate of micro-batch plots. The general experience is that naturally processed coffees have more pronounced fruit and dark chocolate flavors, usually with some wine-like characteristics and better body. Washed processed coffees have more pronounced acidity. Harrar: coffee is almost all natural processed, with a unique chocolate and nutty flavor profile reflecting the dry climate where the coffee grows. Sidama: is a vast coffee-producing region in the south, including the Guji region and the famous Yirgacheffe region.
☕ Here are some familiar sub-regions in the Yirgacheffe area:
💋ADADO: Delicate stone fruits, citrus, floral notes, balanced structure.
💋ARICHA: Complex, tropical-like, juicy fruit character, sweet sugary and floral notes.
💋BERITI: Prominent floral notes, creamy body, citrus tones.
💋CHELCHELE: Sweet notes resembling toffee or caramel, almonds, plus floral and citrus notes.
💋KOCHERE: Like fruit tea. Citrus, stone fruits.
💋KONGA: Peaches and apricots—more stone fruit aromas—and strong lime notes.
Regarding Ethiopian place name spelling: There is much confusion and inconsistency in Ethiopian coffee spelling, partly because Amharic does not use Roman letters like English. Therefore, spelling this region as Yirgacheffe, Yirgachefe, or even Yirga Chefe is not necessarily incorrect. Regarding Sidamo and Sidama, we note that "Sidamo" is a somewhat derogatory variant in place names, and the more acceptable Sidama should be used.
☕ The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (THE ETHIOPIAN COMMODITY EXCHANGE)
The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established by the Ethiopian government in 2008 to enable coffee to access the agricultural commodity market for soybeans, corn, coffee, and wheat. Since Ethiopian farmers typically have very small plots of land, growing only enough for family needs and selling surplus for cash, ECX believes standardization would be the best way to promote healthy and stable agricultural economic development.
ECX strives to eliminate barriers in trade, giving farmers an open, public, reliable market to sell their products at relatively stable prices. Exchange rules state that any coffee not produced by independent private estates or cooperatives must be sold through the exchange, thus establishing a price and sales guarantee system. However, when designing the system, the concept of "specialty" was replaced with "commodity," making it difficult to trace detailed coffee information.
Coffee grades are determined by their physical characteristics of uniformity, cleanliness, and defect rate, without considering coffee flavor.
After several rounds of intense negotiations with the specialty coffee industry, new supplementary regulations were added: after coffee is purchased, clear information about the coffee processing station must be provided, but it remains impossible to continue tracking detailed information to individual producers/growers.
In March 2017, ECX voted to allow direct sales of coffee from individual processing stations, which not only increases coffee traceability but also helps establish repeat purchase relationships. This change increases the possibility of higher sales prices for coffee farmers. The impact of greater traceability and more direct sales on Ethiopian specialty coffee remains to be seen, but industry insiders are optimistic.
Ethiopian Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations
FrontStreet Coffee's freshly roasted single-origin Ethiopian coffee beans—such as Yirgacheffe and Sidamo—are fully guaranteed in both brand and quality, suitable for brewing with various equipment. More importantly, they offer extremely high value-for-money. A half-pound (227g) bag costs only around 70-90 RMB. Calculating at 200ml per cup with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, one bag can make 15 cups of specialty coffee, with each cup costing only about 5-6 RMB. Compared to café prices of dozens of RMB per cup, this represents exceptional value.
FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. 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
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Ethiopian Coffee Regions: Characteristics and Flavor Comparison_Ethiopian Coffee Beans Price per Bag
Professional coffee knowledge exchange For more coffee bean information please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style) Ethiopia is the homeland of Arabica coffee It is in the forests of Ethiopia's Kaffa region that you can find wild Arabica coffee In the Ethiopian language coffee is called Bun or Buna coffee bean might be from Ka
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Coffee Bean Quality Standards: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Coffee Production and Local Consumption Practices
Professional barista knowledge exchange. Follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style) for more coffee bean information. Every time we purchase coffee, we maintain our high standards for in-house roasting and do not allow any defective beans. Of course, the coffee beans presented to consumers are plump and full, with sweet aftertaste and prominent fruit aroma. Everyone might wonder if the coffee beans we purchase are always of such high quality? Of course not. The coffee beans we encounter are selected from hundreds or even thousands to achieve such high quality. So what about those lower quality beans? They are naturally left for consumption in producing countries! Because the good ones are exported for foreign exchange—that's most important! Want to know what kind of coffee locals drink? Let me take you to see— In Laos, we had the opportunity to visit a local roasting facility. They use raw materials that are substandard or even lower-grade coffee beans that we wouldn't use. The probability of finding stones and other debris can be said to be quite high—if you grab a handful of raw coffee beans, there's a certain proportion of foreign matter or defects. Look at this bag of raw beans—the colors inside are truly varied—notice there are black beans, insect-damaged beans, moldy beans, branches, small stones... Take a closer look. See that? There are also moldy beans with parchment... Look even closer. I would never dare to use these beans— And here's our star ingredient... This bucket of butter is the fragrant star that makes the coffee! Before putting the coffee in the roasting pan, they scoop a ladle of butter. As the butter heats, it coats the outside of the coffee beans. After cooling, this layer of oil is absorbed into the coffee beans. When brewing coffee, it's released when heated. This way, the coffee you drink will have a rich milky aroma! (Just imagine the taste of fermented butter after the coffee sits for a while...) Here we discovered an "international scandal"—the white rice donated by our Red Cross to Laos was actually sold by local government officials to private roasting facilities. What for? It turns out the rice aroma is used to cover up the miscellaneous flavors in coffee. I heard that the more white rice mixed in, the more fragrant the taste— The words "Taiwan World Vision" are still displayed on the packaging bags— As soon as the roasting is complete and cooled, it's ground into powder. So the appearance doesn't need to be too good (the grinders are even rusty). What surprised me most was that they actually use cypress wood (that pile in the middle, in pieces) as firewood—such a waste! (Laos is rich in timber, so wood we consider precious they probably think nothing of!) I really wanted to sneak back a few pieces— The wood is ignited here and then dragged inside and placed under the roaster for roasting. Raw beans are poured from this opening. They can roast 100 kilograms at a time— Close-up of the bean inlet. Full view of the roasting machine. The person on the far left is the roaster, he's explaining the roasting process... ALAN introduces the local coffee culture to everyone at the entrance. He said this roasting facility is the second largest in the area. The grade of coffee is determined by how much white rice is mixed in (who would have thought white rice would be used this way here). FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse variety of beans, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com
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