How to Enjoy Limu Washed Local Heirloom Coffee? What Coffee Regions Does Ethiopia Have?

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Ethiopian Coffee Growing Regions

Ethiopian coffee comes mainly from eight growing regions: Lekempti, Limu, Illubabor, Djimmah, Harar, Teppi/Bebeka, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe.

Ethiopian coffee is held in high regard at home, and the Sidamo and Yirgacheffe regions in particular draw keen interest and affection from Chinese coffee lovers. Sidama province lies in southern Ethiopia, bordered by Arsi province to the north, stretching east toward Bale province, and adjoining the Gamu Gofa administrative region to the west.

Limu Region Characteristics

Limu generally produces washed beans, with a profile a little milder than Sidamo coffees and often featuring distinctive citrus notes. Limu is not as famous as Sidamo or Yirgacheffe, yet it still turns out plenty of beans with a character all their own.

Heirloom Varieties

Anyone who drinks Ethiopian coffee regularly has likely come across the term "Heirloom." Most Ethiopian varieties carry this name because the country's range of varieties is extraordinarily diverse - a natural gene bank for Arabica. On one hand, the sheer number of varieties makes identification and classification difficult; on the other, the Ethiopian government, for protection reasons, does not disclose information about them, so they are grouped together as "Heirloom."

Ethiopia has close to 2,000 recorded coffee varieties, including 1,927 native varieties and 128 introduced foreign varieties. In variety alone, Ethiopia's coffee is a "grand garden" where you can find anything you can imagine - long, short, thin, fat...

Limu Coffee Production

Even without the fame of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, Limu still produces remarkable coffee. Most producers here are smallholders, though there are also some large government-owned estates.

In western Ethiopia, "Limu" stands for washed coffee, while "Djimmah" stands for the natural process.

Growing Region Details

Altitude: 1,400-2,200m

Harvest: November-January

Varieties: Heirloom

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee recommends pour-over.

Use a V60 dripper, 15g of coffee, water at 89°C, a Fuji grinder setting of 4, and a water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15.

Bloom with 30g of water for 30s. For the segmented pour, pour to 130g and stop. Once the water level drops by one-third, pour again to 230g.

When brewing Limu, water temperature and timing matter - get them wrong and the cup over-extracts and turns unpleasant.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Limu's mild, citrus-leaning washed profile sits close to Ethiopia's best-known washed coffees, and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe staple is the classic place to start. It is known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body, and its modest price has made it the first specialty bean for many drinkers. Yirgacheffe town sits in the Sidama zone of southern Ethiopia at roughly 1,700-2,100 meters, with the coffee trees planted above 1,800 meters - among the highest coffee regions in the world.

For a more village-specific cup, try FrontStreet Coffee's Gedingding Cooperative. Located at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe in the Woka region, it follows the most traditional washed processing, showing none of the usual bitterness and carrying clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance. If you prefer natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee's Sun-Dried Red Cherry is made from fully ripe red cherries dried on raised beds for three to five weeks, giving the typical Yirgacheffe character plus a tropical fruit aroma, citrus-like acidity, a berry-juice quality, honeyed sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.