What are the Characteristics of Ethiopian Coffee Beans? What Does New Kurume Mean and What are Its Flavors?

Introduction to FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Sidamo Guji New Zhuman Coffee

Ethiopia is widely recognized as the birthplace of coffee — a claim that is not wrong, but needs unpacking. The coffee industry long dismissed Robusta as Arabica's ugly sister, until a fascinating genetic discovery overturned that view: when scientists compared genetic sequences, they found the two species were not siblings or cousins at all — Robusta is actually one of Arabica's parents. The most likely birthplace of Arabica lies in southern Sudan, where Robusta cross-pollinated with another coffee species, Eugenioides, creating the entirely new species we know as Arabica.

It was only after coffee spread to Ethiopia that it truly flourished. People there began using coffee cherries — at first as a fruit, not a beverage. Yemen was the first country to cultivate coffee as a crop, but Ethiopians had been gathering wild coffee fruit far earlier.

Coffee may have been exported from Ethiopia as early as the first years of the 17th century, when formal coffee houses appeared in Yemen and across the Middle East. At that time, European merchants who wanted to buy were refused. As cultivation took hold in Yemen, on Java, and in the Americas, the Ethiopian coffee boom waned. The Ethiopian coffee of that era actually came from wild trees in the Kaffa and Buno regions, not from plantations.

Ethiopia regained attention in the early 19th century, when historical records documented the export of 10,000 kilograms of coffee from Enerea (present-day Ethiopia). By the 19th century, the country had two distinct grades: Harari coffee (grown around the town of Harrar) and Abyssinia (wild coffee from everywhere else). Harrar's beans consequently enjoyed a lasting reputation — popular, and renowned for quality.

As a natural-process coffee, Zhuman achieves a cleanliness nearly on par with washed coffees. Ethiopia's unique geography and climate give the coffee its high sugar content and captivating flavors. This New Zhuman was cupping-selected personally by the Wangli Coffee World Champion Team. It features a clean mouthfeel, multi-layered fruit, bright acidity, and floral notes. Cupping notes: clean mouthfeel, pineapple, strawberry, peach, multi-layered fruit, dried cherry, bright acidity, flowers, blueberry, black currant, jasmine. It earned an impressive average SCA cupping score of 89 — a bean coffee lovers adore.

Ethiopia New Zhuman

Origin: Sidamo, Guji

Altitude: 1800-1950m

Processing Method: Natural

Flavor Notes: Pineapple, strawberry, peach, black currant, blueberry

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this natural-process Guji appeals to you, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian shelf has plenty more in the same spirit. The sun-dried Huakui (Flower Queen), from the Hambella district of Guji in Sidamo, is the star of recent years: dried whole on raised beds for 21 days with constant turning and hand-sorting every three to five days, then hulled and screened once more. Roasted medium-light, it shows a faint fermented wine note, florals, citrus, and mango — richer and more complex, with honey sweetness, a cocoa-and-spice undertone, a thick body, and a long finish. Its tropical-fruit personality — strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, even lychee — has earned it a reputation as "the least coffee-like coffee."

For a washed counterpart, the Gedeb (Guodingding) cooperative lot from the Worka zone — an independent cooperative of about 300 farmers formed in 2012 after splitting from the YCFCU's Worka cooperative — is pulped before drying, which brings out remarkably clear citrus and lemon tones over an elegant white floral note.

For something a little different, the Kaffa Forest lot grows wild at 1,400–2,100 meters in shade, the most representative expression of Ethiopia's native forest coffee. Roasted medium-light, it grinds out with white floral aroma, opens with bright lemon acidity and sweet orange and bergamot, and finishes like green tea with a hint of melon and nut. Together with the New Zhuman's 89-point cup, these are the lots that explain why Ethiopia remains every coffee lover's treasure trove.