What are Ethiopian Landrace Coffee Varieties? What's the Relationship Between Landrace and Heirloom Varieties?

Understanding Landrace Varieties in Ethiopian Coffee

When purchasing Ethiopian coffee beans, the name "Heirloom" is quite common, translated in Chinese as "原生种" (native variety) or "传家宝" (heirloom), generally referring to mixed-harvested coffee varieties. However, in the past two to three years, another term "Landrace" has begun appearing on packaging of some Ethiopian beans. What exactly is this "Landrace"? And how does it relate to heirloom varieties? FrontStreet Coffee will discuss what Landrace truly is in this article.

In Ethiopia, the garden cultivation system is the predominant planting model that most small-scale coffee farmers rely on for their livelihood. Heirloom native varieties come from the "unknown varieties" in their backyards. Coffee trees might have been left by previous landowners, shared among neighbors, or possibly grown from seeds brought from another origin. Various coffee plants are intercropped with other economic crops on the land, harvested only when ripe and then sold.

Therefore, Heirloom doesn't refer to a specific coffee variety but represents a blend of green beans from the origin. These coffee beans combine harvests from multiple small farmers during the same period, mixed together to form a single batch that might encompass dozens or even hundreds of undifferentiated varieties. precisely because of the differences between varieties and the varying mixing methods each time, these coffee beans differ in particle size, dimensions, and shapes—some large, some small, some long, some round—can be understood as "blended batches." For example, popular batches that FrontStreet Coffee regularly offers, such as Boku Cooperative, Red Cherry, Worka, Kaffa Forest, Konga, and Kochere, are all labeled with "Heirloom" in the variety column.

FrontStreet Coffee: Kaffa Forest Coffee Beans

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Kaffa Forest
Altitude: 1800 meters
Variety: Heirloom
Grade: G1
Processing: Washed
Flavor: Lemon, sweet orange, peach, green tea, melon seed kernel, caramel

This Kaffa Forest in FrontStreet Coffee's bean selection comes from our familiar Ethiopia, named after growing in the vast cloud forest region—the Kafa Biosphere Reserve. The primary forests of the Kaffa Biosphere are not only recognized as the birthplace of coffee but also the genetic treasury of the Arabica coffee we know today. The "Gesha" in the Geisha origin story is precisely one of the regions in Kaffa, located in the western area.

Here, FrontStreet Coffee needs to emphasize a particular point: since Kaffa Forest is the main setting of the Geisha origin story we're familiar with, and the Geisha variety name comes from the Geisha Mountain area here, some merchants directly name this bean "Geisha" and introduce it to the market as "Kaffa Forest Geisha." However, it's actually completely different from the Geisha variety we know.

Typically, the "Geisha" that baristas refer to is a coffee variety recorded as "T2772" from the Panama growing region. The most distinctive feature of these beans is their large, slender shape—pointed at both ends and full in the middle, with the sides curling outward after roasting, always reminding FrontStreet Coffee of "sausage buns." The reason Panama's Geisha has gained the affection of countless people is that, unlike the traditional rich coffee flavor in people's impressions, it's more like a cup of fresh floral and fruit tea, always carrying rich aromas and complex fruit flavors that evoke a series of unusual scents. At different temperatures, one can experience delicate textures and sweet-sour fruit flavors filling the entire mouth.

Compared to the Geisha variety, this Kaffa Forest that FrontStreet Coffee acquired emphasizes more on its origin, so in terms of variety, FrontStreet Coffee labels it as the commonly found native Heirloom variety in Ethiopia. Considering this bean comes from the high-altitude forest region of Ethiopia, rich in light floral and fruit aromas, and uses washed processing, FrontStreet Coffee hopes to present its clean and elegant character through light roasting.

The Evolution of Landrace Varieties

To return to our main topic, among all plants growing in the fields, some coffee trees show stronger cultivation advantages—they not only adapt to local soil, climate, and environmental conditions but gradually stabilize in flavor, while also demonstrating disease resistance and high productivity characteristics, thus being specially preserved by farmers. After years of cultivation and hybridization, they gradually became "domesticated," and with farmers conducting selective breeding to some degree, the characteristics of individual plants became less unpredictable, becoming stable and regular.

These describable coffee types gradually became recognized as "Landrace varieties" and were passed down through generations of coffee farmers. Therefore, Landrace refers to coffee plant types with historical origins, genetic diversity, and clear characteristics that can adapt to local terroir and work well with farmers' field management, also known as ancient superior varieties.

So, if these ancient superior variety coffees originally existed locally in Ethiopia, why weren't they separately distinguished before? From a botanical perspective, Landrace varieties cannot be called an independent variety or even a subspecies, because such "uniformity" is not solely caused by plant genetics but more influenced by local terroir—it's the result of time and natural selection.

The Rise of Landrace Recognition

In recent years, through the efforts of Ethiopia's agricultural management institution JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center), many regional Landrace varieties previously categorized as "Heirloom" have been identified, and farmers growing these Landrace varieties have gradually increased. However, because there was no official identification from public departments before, they weren't specially announced to the public. For example, Landrace varieties widely grown in southern Ethiopia include Kurume, Wolishao, and Dega, while the western or southwestern regions cultivate Choche, Sardo Buna, and Bedessa.

Because even if farmers can distinguish the Landrace varieties they grow and clearly identify whether a particular coffee tree belongs to Kurume or Choche, this detailed native variety information may not be preserved after harvest. This is because many large processing plants operated by major companies purchase coffee cherries from hundreds of local small farmers and mix them together for processing and sale, finally labeling them as Heirloom and exporting them worldwide. Therefore, the Ethiopian Heirloom coffee we drank in the past was actually mixed with these Landrace varieties.

Nowadays, more and more international green bean suppliers, in order to provide more choices for consumers pursuing "uniqueness," tend to purchase local coffee varieties that emphasize regional characteristics. From a cultivation and production perspective, these Landrace varieties can demonstrate good adaptability in the region while ensuring decent income, because they are no longer mixed with other unknown heirloom varieties for production but can be harvested separately and made into single batches for sale. Naturally, both new and experienced farmers are more willing to grow them. As consumers, we have increasingly more Ethiopian coffee beans belonging to Landrace varieties to choose from.

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