What Does Heirloom Mean for Ethiopian Coffee Beans? Characteristics and Flavor Profile of Ethiopian Heirloom Varieties

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FrontStreet Coffee - Heirloom Coffee Introduction

When we talk about Ethiopian coffee, some people might describe the floral aromas they taste with words like jasmine, rosehip, and magnolia. But have you ever wondered why these specific varieties with floral characteristics are often simply categorized as "Heirloom"?

In the early days of the third wave coffee movement, heirloom was often used to describe Ethiopian coffees, but this wasn't entirely accurate. Because people didn't fully understand these varieties, many local producers were deprived of opportunities to learn more about varieties and earn higher incomes. Roasters couldn't distinguish between these varieties, and consumers missed the chance to taste new varieties and new flavors because they simply weren't aware of what options were available.

However, changing this situation is easier said than done. Let's take a closer look at what heirloom truly means and the challenges in improving transparency about these heirloom varieties.

The term heirloom represents ancient plant varieties that were originally cultivated for consumption. Some define varieties as heirlooms only if they are over 100 years old, while others say 50 years. Some people define varieties that existed before 1945 as heirlooms—around the time when hybrid varieties began to emerge—or 1951, when hybrids became more widespread.

In the coffee world, you'll find that the term heirloom applies to varieties introduced to South America and Asia over a century ago, as well as to many coffee varieties from Africa, particularly those from Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, the use of the term heirloom began after the specialty coffee movement started. At that time, specialty coffee buyers who couldn't distinguish between Typica and Bourbon would collectively categorize all these unknown varieties as heirlooms.

Ethiopian coffee producers use different names to distinguish between coffee trees. They typically don't use globally recognized scientific names for these varieties, instead referring to them with local vocabulary or borrowing characteristics from native coffee trees to name certain varieties.

Knowledge Point

Arabica and Robusta species are divided into single-origin coffee and espresso coffee based on coffee bean combinations.

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