The Coffees of Ethiopia

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Africa: Ethiopia

Hand-sorting of natural coffees in Harar.
Typical Ethiopian coffee land.

Current Crop Comments:

I felt like the best Harar in 2005 came from the huge Oromia cooperative, and not from conventional sources. 2006 had better Dry-Process Sidamo and Yirgacheffe (Yes, dry process Yirgachffe) than Harar. And here we are in '07 with a lot of very poor DP samples coming, while the wet-process coffees are excellent. Finally, I found one lot of Harar with a good clean fruit-and-spice character, and I hope more nice lots will appear in the near future. But poor weather patterns, rain during the time the coffee is drying on the patio, ruins quality. With a great Harar I am looking for fruited notes ranging between blueberry and apricot, brightness, and not too much rustic character that would distract from the fruits. Usually, early new crop Harar and Yirgacheffe are not the best. Nonetheless I cup them all, and I cup a lot of Ethiopian lots to find the ones we offer. This origin is very important to me!

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee: it is in the forests of the Kaffa region that coffee arabica grew wild. Coffee is "Bun" or "Buni" in Ethiopia, so Coffee Bean is quite possibly a poor anglicized interpretation of "Kaffa Bun". Coffea Arabica was also found in the Harar region quite early, either brought from the Kaffa forests or found closer by. It is entirely possible that slaves taken from the forests chewed coffee berry and spread it into the Harar region, through which the Muslim slave trade route passed.

Ethiopian coffees are available from some regions as dry-processed, from some regions as washed, and from Sidamo as both! The difference between the cup profiles of the natural dry-processed vs. the washed is profound. Washed Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Limmu have lighter body and less earthy / wild tastes in the cup as their dry-processed kinfolk.

Ethiopian coffees can vary greatly from lot to lot. It takes A LOT of cupping to find the specific lot of coffee that is superior. MAO Horse imports a lot of coffee, but each year one specific "chop" (lot number) out-cups the others. Since lots differ in character, and I do so much to find the best lot, we are now listing the Lot Number in the description of the coffee. When I find that coffee, I buy the majority of the year's coffee immediately, leaving a small opening in case any other good lots come along later in the season. But my experience has been that early shippings of the DP Ethiopians are often the best of the season, in contradiction to many other origins where the earliest are often underdeveloped, lower-grown coffees and the mid-crop pickings are better. Organic supplies have been good, and a few lots have been outstanding. Here's an interesting article outlining the producers hopes for the budding Organic Ethiopian coops.

Coffee Farms:	331,130 peasant farms 19,000 state farm coffee areas	Harvest Times:	Washed: August-December Dry: October to March Exports all year
Coffee Workers:	about 12 million	Grading, Processing :	Grade 1= 0-3 defects Grade 2= 4-12 Most coffee qualifies in these 2 grades, but is exported as grade 4 or 5, presumably for tax reasons (?)
Shade-Grown:	55% light shade 33% medium 17% heavy	Certified Organic:	None certified: all coffee grown organic by tradition
Major Coffee Growing Regions:	Harar, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe (in Sidamo), Limmu, Djimmah, Lekempti, Bebeka	Rank in Production::	2nd in Africa 7th in World
Botanical Cultivars:	Native arabica (arabica coffee is indigenous to Harar)	Introduced:	Coffee grew wild on the Harar plateau before the existence of man, and in Ethiopia that is a long, long, long time ago.

A brief word about the grading of Ethiopian Coffees: The top grade Ethiopian washed coffees (Yirgacheffe and Sidamo, usually) might bear a Grade 2 or 3, dry-processed will be 4 or 5 by nature of the preparation method. Oftentimes, a Grade 4 will be marked grade 5 to save on taxes and duties. The whole system is very unreliable and seemingly arbitrary. But we judge coffee by cup quality via blind cupping: not the marks of the bag. Expect uneven roast color from even the best of the dry-processed coffees. Even roast color is not necessarily a mark of high cup quality. PLEASE NOTE: Some Ethiopian dry-processed coffees are hand prepped and dried in the sun - so watch out for rocks! There can be small stones and dirt clods in the coffee that you need to cull out before roasting and definitely before grinding as these can jam a grinder. A ground up dirt clod can foul an otherwise lovely pot of coffee. (In wet processed coffees the stones fall out in the water channel but in dry processed coffees, small stones can escape detection and make it all the way through to the final bag.) Expect uneven roast colors from dry-processed Ethiopian coffees. In this image of Harar, there is one bean to cull out - pretty obvious.

Our Ethiopian Coffee Offerings: Please refer to our Reference Page for definitions of terms and cupping numbers used below.

Ethiopia Organic Dry-Process Golocha
Country:	Ethiopia	Grade:	3	Region:	Golocha	Mark:	IPS Project, Golocha
Processing:	Dry-Processed	Crop:	October 2007 Arrival	Appearance:	1.8 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen	Varietal:	Heirloom Ethiopia cultivar
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		3.6	Notes: Gololcha is one of IPS coffee development projects found in Arsi zone, Oromia Region, 310 km east of Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa. (Factoid: Arsi is a place where the best athletes of the world in mid-distance run come from, including Haile Gebreselasie). The area is not far from the ancinet city of Harar, and is a heavily forested zone. Modern coffee farming has been introduced in Gololcha 15 years ago by two Belgium expats, but like many areas in Ethiopia, coffee can be found growing wild in the forest forever. This coffee is the result of a quality-improvement project (called IPS Golocha Sole) to aid farmers in getting the best price for coffee. It's a unique situation: IPS built the coffee mill and the road to it (there were no roads previously to Golocha), but the farmers still must use horses and mules to transport the coffee from the communities to the mill via trails. The Golocha farmers are usually intercropping coffee with other food plants, and maintaining a balance between forest shade and allowing enough sun for the coffee to thrive. The altitiude is very high in this area, 1800-2000 meters. The cup has strongly fruited notes, with outstanding body. The aromatics have apricot fruited highlights with herbal hints. At darker FC+ roast level, the coffee has complex chocolate notes laced with winey fruit, while at City+ there is a dried apricot fruit to it. At all roast levels the body/mouthfeel is impressive: viscous, thick, heavy. The cup has strong rustic chocolate and fruit, and finishes with good bittersweet notes. While Golocha is near Harar, it resembles a cross between traditional longberry Harar and the apricot-peach laced fruits of a dry-process Sidamo. The acidity is relatively low.
Wet Aroma (1-5)		3.5
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		8.3
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		8.6
Body - Movement (1-5)		4.4
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		8.4
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		0	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Bold intensity / Rustic, spiced, fruited
add 50		50	Roast: Full City to FC + roast is best: I like a more developed roast taste and a dense, almost creamy body.
Score (Max. 100)		86.8	Compare to: A rustic and raw dry-processed coffee, not for those who want cleanliness and uniformity in their roasting and tasting.

Ethiopia
Organic Dry-Process Golocha •

$5.10

$9.69

$22.19

$42.33

$78.54

Ethiopia Harar Horse DP -Lot 17406
Country:	Ethiopia	Grade:	4	Region:	Hararghe	Mark:	M.A.O. Horse
Processing:	Dry-Processed	Crop:	March 2008 Arrival	Appearance:	2.2 d/300gr, 16-18 Screen	Varietal:	Longberry and Shortberry heirloom cultivars
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		4.4	Notes: Harar is the wild cousin of Ethiopian coffee, from the far Eastern regions, from the ancient city, from a culture distinct from the Southern mountains and Sidamo/Yirgacheffe, from the Western birthplace of coffee in Kaffa area, Limmu, Ghimbi, Djimmah. Harar is alone in terms of geography, culture, and (sometimes) cup quality. Harar is a dry-processed coffee, the simple, rustic method where the ripe red coffee cherry is picked from the tree and laid in the sun to dry. It turns raisin-brown, then dries so the hard shell of fruit skin, mucilage and parchment shell can be torn from the green seed in one step. The result is wild cup flavors, fruited, chocolate, spice, thick body. But since it is such a crude process, their is little mechanized interventions in terms of quality control; no machine screening, density sorting, electronic color sorting. Everything is done with the eye and the hand, as coffee is winnowed in baskets, under-ripes, broken beans, black beans, fermented beans, all removed visually in countless hours of work. It's a human-sorting system that makes up in character what it lacks in perfection. So Harar is a crapshoot too. Each roast has some light "quaker" beans in it, each batch roasts a little different, cups out with different flavors. It's the nature of the type. But in recent years the quality has been uniformily bad, mostly due to changing weather patterns. I am thrilled to say that Harar is back to it's stellar form this year though. The dry fragrance is heavily fruited, with distinct mango and tamarind scents. The wet aromatics are spicy, have honey-dipped fruit character, fresh ginger, and clove in the FC roast range. The light City to City+ roasts taste like spiced apricot tea and peach preserves. There's always that slight rustic funk to the fruited qualities of Harar. It has good body, and finishes with a spicy cinnamon note. Try to keep the roasts light for maximum bright fruit character. The coffee may not look pretty at these lighter roasts, but it is more lively. At FC the coffee has more rustic chocolate character, a slightly gamey note, and a touch of leather. You can coax a blueberry note from the cup at C+/FC roast.
Wet Aroma (1-5)		3.8
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		9.4
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5)		3.7
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		9.2
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		1	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-Bold intensity / Sweet candy fruit notes, body, spice.
add 50		50	Roast: The sweet spot here is at Full City. The fruited notes are muted a bit at this roast stage, but they behave a nice jammy sweetness. City+ has less body and balance, but higher-toned fruits. Remember, this is dry-processed natural Harar, so expect some unevenness in roast color, and 1-2 beans that "resist the roast" and should be culled out.
Score (Max. 100)		90	Compare to: A great dry-processed Harar cup, with solid fruited sweet notes. It's a rustic cup, a la Yemen dry-processed and such.

Ethiopia
Harar Horse DP - Lot 17406 •

$5.30

$10.07

$23.06

$43.99

$81.62

Ethiopia Organic Limu (Indonesia-Process)
Country:	Ethiopia	Grade:	3	Region:	Gera, Limu (also sp. Limmu)	Mark:	Gera, Organic, Trabocca
Processing:	Semi-wet-Processed	Crop:	October 2007 Arrival	Appearance:	.6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen	Varietal:	Heirloom Ethiopia cultivar
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		3.8	Notes: Limu is a region in the Oromia growing zone located in Southern Ethiopia. Gera is the name of a small cooperative farmers group in the Limu zone. The coffees in this area are processed using the traditional wet fermentation method, and result in a very "Yirgacheffe-like" cup. What does that mean? Bright citrusy notes, floral qualities, effervescence, light body. But here we have a twist on tradition. Our Ethiopia Organic Limu has been processed as some coffees from Sulawesi or Sumatra would be, a hybrid of wet-process and dry-process. In this method, the coffee cherry is de-pulped (meaning the seed is removed from the skin) with the green bean still inside the parchment shell and surrounded by the fruity, sticky mucilage. It is washed through the channels and into a fermentation tank, just as a wet process coffee is ... but the difference is that it is removed after about 10 hours, whereas a wet process coffee would be left for 24 hours. So the fruity mucilage is not fully broken down, and remains on the parchment. Without any further steps, it is immediately dried on raised beds. The result is a bit uncanny, and not at all like a wet-process Limu, not anything like a Sulawesi or Sumatra. It's bright, with punctuated fruit notes, and yet has great body and chocolate roast character. The fragrance of the grounds has semi-sweet chocolate tones with kumquat citrus and an aroma that reminds me of lemon pastry. The wet aroma is odd: at first I get this delightful floral waft, then a husky fruited note that is a result of this Indonesia-style processing. As a cupper evaluating coffee "blind", it is unexpected and my first reaction is to think that a Yirgacheffe was tainted. But there is intention behind this unusual aromatic combination. In the cup there is a strong lemon character, with an herbal dimension to it, reminding me of lemon grass tea. Later, it reminds me of fresh, unfiltered, pulpy lemonade. Lemon doesn't mean sour or unsweet; in fact the coffee is very sweet, with just the slightest rustic edge to it. That's what makes it so different than the ultra-clean (almost artificial) citrus of some Yirgacheffes. It also gives the fruit a slight winey dimension, and that imbues the cup with some Kenya-like character. The finish is slightly rindy and dry in the mouthfeel. I get a generous aftertaste of Rose Hip tea too. It's a great cup for those who like bright coffees, but might come off too bright for those who like the super-low-acid Indonesias.
Wet Aroma (1-5)		4
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		9.2
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		9.1
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5)		3.5
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		9.2
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		0	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-Bold intensity / Unusual bright citrus flavors, funky sweetness
add 50		50	Roast: City+ roast is my favorite, but I found FC+ and Vienna to be intriguing too, whereas a Yirg. Falls apart at the darker roasts.
Score (Max. 100)		88.8	Compare to: The bright soaring notes of a Yirgacheffe, with some complex and rustic aspects.

Ethiopia
Organic Limu (Indonesia-Process) •

$5.10

$9.69

Low Stock

Ethiopia Organic Idido Misty Valley DP
Country:	Ethiopia	Grade:	1	Region:	Idido, Gedio Area, Yirga-Cheffe	Mark:	Idido town, "Misty Valley" mark
Processing:	Screen Dry-Processed	Crop:	October 2007 Arrival	Appearance:	.2 d/300gr, 16-18 Screen	Varietal:	Longberry and shortberry Ethiopia cultivars
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		4	Notes: This is a special lot of dry-processed (DP) coffee from an area within Yirgacheffe: Idido town in the Gedio area of Yirgacheffe. This is quite different from the Natural Yirgacheffe lot we had earlier this season, a much better preparation of the green coffee, uniform roasting, and unique in its flavor profile. As you know, the tradition in Yirgacheffe is wet-processing, whereas Harar has a dry-processing tradition. Wet-processing is the method used in Central America and the like, resulting in a green seed with a cleaner cup profile, and less earthy or rustic cup flavors. Dry-processing involves drying the entire coffee cherry in the sun, and later removeing the skin, fruity mucilage layer and protective parchment shell that surrounds the green seed ... all in one fell swoop. Excellent dry-processed coffees are difficult because the milling method for wet-processing allows for separation of ripe and unripe coffee cherry (and other defective seeds) using water and machines. But in dry-processing, sorting ou under-ripes is done visually, either by sorting the ripe cherry, or later, sorting the "green" bean. (You probably know from experience with Harar and the like that the dry-processed green bean is in fact yellow, mostly because it has more of the silverskin, the chaff, still attached to it). The problem in Ethiopia is this: traditional dry-processed coffee is NOT pre-sorted to include only ripe red coffee cherry and it is sun-dried in a rather haphazard fashion. The difference with this lot is night and day (as an experienced eye can see when you look at the unroasted coffee), this originates with ripe cherry, is uniformaly screen-dried in the sun, and has been dry-milled using the same screen and density-sorting techniques as wet-processed lots. And the result is amazing: it is both a traditional "moka" type coffee flavor (chocolate and fruit) with Yigacheffe accents (floral, citrus) and no distracting, overly-earthy notes. Given that, the darker roasts (FC+, Vienna) are surprisingly pungent, with a intense tobacco aromatic, dark chocolate roast taste, and tannic grape skin notes in the background. But it is the City+ roast where the cup has intense sweetness, and liveliness. The dry fragrance is honeyed, with strawberry and cherry fruit notes, and vanilla. Add water and the sweetness becomes sharper, and sweet mango fruit aromas emerge, with floral and citric hints. Cup flavors are like fruit candy, like marmalade. There are tropical fruits, and sweet orange, dried strawberry and citrus flowers. Unlike light roasts of other dry-processed Ethiopias, there is a noticeable refinement and clarity to the finish of the Idido Misty Valley cup.
Wet Aroma (1-5)		4.4
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		8.6
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		9.2
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5)		3.6
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		9
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		2	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-Bold intensity / Clean, bright, floral and fruited cup
add 50		50	Roast: City + is where you will experience the most here, FC+ to Vienna is nice and bittersweet too. … see the comments above
Score (Max. 100)		90.8	Compare to: A fantastic dry-processed Ethiopia without remarkable clarity in the cup flavors, and laced with bright floral notes a la Yirga-Cheffe.

Ethiopia
Organic Idido Misty Valley DP •

$6.60

$12.54

$28.71

$54.78

$101.64

Ethiopia Org. Sidamo DP -Special Selection (Fero Cooperative)
Country:	Ethiopia	Grade:	4	Region:	Fero, Sidamo	Mark:	Trabocca Special Selection, Fero Cooperative, Certified Organic
Processing:	Dry-Processed	Crop:	September 2007 Arrival	Appearance:	1.4 d/300gr, 16-18 Screen	Varietal:	Longberry and Shortberry Mokka cultivar
Dry Fragrance (1-5)		4.2	Notes: This dry-processed coffee from the Sidamo region has often out-cupped the more famous natural coffees of Harar. We have been obtaining a Special Selection lot from a Holland-based source for a few years, and it has come in as the best dry-process (DP) Sidamo of the season. This lot is from a particular coop in the Sidamo region, Fero Cooperative. The process for this special selection involves harvesting ripe cherry, promptly scree-drying on raised beds, and extra steps in sorting the coffee after it is hulled. This differs from other dry-process Ethiopia coffees, which are often picked at the tail-ends of the crop, indiscrimiately picked, and consolidated later (mixing good coffee with bad). It's also the same process used with the Idido Misty Valley coffee, and the results of this careful and coordinated processing really show in the cup. This lot has both berry fruit and dried apricot. It has less distractions in terms of earthy and leathery flavors too, common in DP Sidamo coffees. There's everything else in here too; exotic spice, fresh tobacco, herbs. And oddly enough when we started to brew our test roasts (in this case, the Technivorm), we had ton of blueberry syrup flavors in the cup, something that was not very pronounced on the cupping table. It's intense stuff. As far as variable cups goes, this is true with all dry-processed coffees, and always true with the Ethiopian dry-processed. It's just part of the sun-dried coffee process where whole cherry is patio-dried, then the whole husk and parchment is removed in one step, and all defective coffee seeds are removed by visual sorting. That means a few decent-looking seeds will make it through the process that are indeed a bit over-ripe or under-ripe. You can cull out any really, really light-colored seeds after roasting, or leave them in. As a fun experiment, you can try to grind and brew the light ones, or simple munch on them to get a sense of what they contibute or detract from the cup. In a strict sense (that we grade wet processed coffees) they are defective: underripes. But they are a part of the coffee culture, and the cup, with Ethiopian coffees, where there is no wet-mill equipment to sort coffee; it is all done with the hand and eye.				Fresh red cofffee cherry sun-drying at Fero Coop Natural coffee after several days of drying at Fero Coop
Wet Aroma (1-5)		4
Brightness - Acidity (1-10)		8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10)		9
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5)		3.5
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10)		8.8
Cupper's Correction (1-5)		1	Intensity/Prime Attribute: Bold intensity/Heavy body and strong "natural" character - dry fruit, apricot, berry.
add 50		50	Roast: City+ to Full City + roast is best: I like a more developed roast taste which aids some bittersweetness to the cup and compliments the fruit notes.
Score (Max. 100)		89	Compare to: Classic Dry-process coffees of Ethiopia and Yemen.

Ethiopia
Org. Sidamo DP -Special Selection •

$5.10

$9.69

$22.19

$42.33

$78.54

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