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More than any other country, Ethiopia has a broad genetic diversity among its coffee varieties. Aroma and flavor are among the unique characteristics found in coffees. Nine different bean varieties are cultivated in the four growing areas, all with distinctive tastes, sizes, shapes, and colors. In Ethiopia coffee is grown at altitude ranging from 1,500 to 2,100meters above sea level at temperature of 27°c and 13°c, respectively. The ideal crop is slightly acidic with a PH 4.5 to 6.5 and it requires a well distributed annual rain fall of 1,500 to 2,500mm.
Washed and sun dried | Altitude: 1500m-2200m (5080-7210ft)
Cup: Bright acidity, medium body with spicy, citrus flavors
Sidamo green coffees are grown in the province of Sidamo in the Ethiopian highlands at elevations of 1,500 to 2,200 meters above sea level. These elevations put the beans into the SHG (strictly high grown) and SHB (strictly hard bean) category. This category is for coffee cultivated at elevations where the growing time is slow, and therefore the bush has more time to absorb nutrients and develop more robust flavors.
Sidamo coffee is known for its rich complex body along with a bright and vibrant aftertaste, generally consistent year to year. These attributes makes it a staple for any Ethiopian coffee roaster.
Washed and sun dried | Altitude: 1770m-2200m (5790-7210ft)
Cup: Bright acidity, medium body marked with jasmine and lemon flavours.
Yirgacheffe coffee is known for its sweet flavor and aroma. It is spicy and fragrant and is frequently reviewed and rated as one of the best arabica coffees in the world. A fine Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee displays a bright acidity along with intense, clean tastes, and a complexity of floral notes in the aroma, sometimes with a hint of toasted coconut.
Yirgacheffe coffee is a wet processed (washed) coffee grown at elevations from 1,700 to 2,200 meters above sea level. These elevations put the beans into the SHG (strictly high grown) and (SHB) (strictly hard bean) category: whereas with Sidamo the bush develops slowly, allowing additional time for nutrients to be delivered to the berry thus developing the best of flavors.
Sun dried | Altitude: 1510m-2120m (4950-6950ft)
Cup: Medium to light acidity, full body, and strong mocha flavour with blueberry notes.
Ethiopian Harrar short berry coffee is known for its heavy body with spicy and fragrant flavors. A wild and exotic dry processed coffee, Harrar coffee is known for its wine-accented and fruity, floral-toned acidity; very bright in the cup with a rich and pungent, heady aroma that displays notes of blackberries.
The heady and pungent aroma often offers up hints of blackberry along with spicy tones of cardamom, cinnamon and compote, adding to the lingering aftertaste. A fine Harrar short berry coffee brew has a dry edge, and sometimes a surprisingly pleasant, slightly fermented, aftertaste that include intense notes of jasmine.
The bean is a wild and exotic dry-processed (natural) arabica coffee that is grown on small farms in the Oromia region (formerly Harrar) in southern Ethiopia at elevations between 1,400 meters and 2,000 meters.
Washed and Sun dried | Altitude: 1400m-2100m (4590-6880ft)
Cup: a well-balanced cup, medium acidity and body with distinct wine-accented flavors.
Limu coffee is a high-quality wet-processed (washed) Ethiopian coffee that exhibits a relatively low acidity yet is somewhat sharp in taste. The brewed cup is distinguished by its well-balanced body, often fruit-toned, pleasantly sweet and vibrant, with floral overtones.
Limu coffee is grown at elevations ranging from 1097 to 1890 meters in southwest and south-central Ethiopia, producing medium-sized coffee beans with a distinctive round shape, green in colour.
Sun dried | Altitude: 1400m-2100m (4590-6880ft)
Cup: Well balanced, medium acidity and body with distinct wine-accented flavor.
An excellent, less acidic wet-processed (washed) coffee. It is naturally sun-dried and has a heavy body with hints of a nutty aroma. Its pleasant aftertaste draws coffee lovers to the variety.
Jimma Coffee is grown at elevations from 1341m-1828m above sea level within the biggest rain catchment area in Ethiopia.
Washed and sun dried | Altitude: 1700m-2200m (5570-7210ft)
Cup: Good acidity, medium body with fruity finish, Nekemte coffee exhibits a slight yet distinct fruity flavor. A gourmet grade coffee, it has strength laced with flavor,
Nekemte coffee is cultivated at elevations of between 1493m-1798m above sea level.
Coffea arabica arabica thrives at high altitude in mineral-rich soil and is a more sensitive plant than robusta, requiring more care and cooler temps. Robusta, as the name suggests, is a harder and heartier plant that likes hotter conditions and does not thrive at altitude like arabica.
Coffee plants are often grown as seedlings in sheltered nurseries, where they are nurtured to become healthy and robust. They will be watered and protected from the weather until they are mature enough to be planted. Coffee seedlings can be kept in a nursery for up to 15 months before being transplanted to their permanent location.
Planting is often done during the rainy season so that the soil in which the coffee seedlings are put is wet and soft and the roots have time to set fast. It might take up to five years for a freshly planted coffee shrub to yield fruit, known as the coffee cherry.
Forest coffee is coffee that grows organically and wild in primary forests that have not been disturbed or destroyed by human intervention. Much of the arabica grown in Ethiopia is, to some extent, forest coffee. 10% of coffee sold on the market is naturally germinated; 35% of coffee sold is semi-forest coffee, which is forest coffee but the forest canopies are reduced many times a year to allow more light to reach the bush. Forest coffee accounts for 45% of all coffee produced in Ethiopia.
The coffee cherry, is a complex fruit composed of several elements, the most important of which is the green coffee bean used for making coffee.
Before the cherries form, the coffee bush’s blossoms will fall. Coffee cherries mature and are ready for harvesting after a total of nine months. Coffee cherries begin green and grow to a vivid red, orange, or yellow color, depending on the type.
Harvesting is classified into two types: selective picking and stripping.
The most preferred method for collecting high-quality coffee is selective plucking. This type of selecting is done entirely by hand. Experienced growers select only completely developed cherries and discard those that require more maturation.
Manual, mechanical, or large-scale harvesting devices can be used for stripping. Stripping, unlike selective picking, does not regard a cherry’s maturity condition, instead emphasizing on speed and inexpensive cost above quality. As a consequence, all cherries are harvested and categorized according to size and ripeness.
Processing is the method of converting the raw fruit of the coffee plant (cherry) into the commodity, green coffee. The cherry has the fruit or pulp removed leaving the seed or bean, which is then dried. Processing varies and can have significant effect on the flavor of roasted and brewed coffee.
The method is used in regions where there is plentiful supply of fresh water. It produce so called “Washed” or “Mild” coffee and is adopted in Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Kenya Tanzania and Ethiopia. This helps to preserve the intrinsic qualities of the bean. Hence the coffee produced by this method is usually regarded as being of better quality and commands higher prices. The main differences between the wet and dry method is that the wet method removes the pulp from the bean within 12 hours of harvesting instead of allowing the cherries to dry.
The beans are separated from the skin and pulp by using a pulping machine, which squeezes the cherries between fixed and moving surface. The flesh and the skin of the fruit are left on one side and the beans, enclosed in their parchment covering; on the other the clearance between the surfaces is adjusted to avoid damage to the beans. The lighter, immature beans are then separated from the heavier, mature beans through specially designed washing channel or by shaking the beans through strainer into a thank of water. The beans are then stored in fermentation tanks for few days during which time the slimy layer of the cherry is separated from its parchment like covering by natural enzymes.
The length of the fermentation process is based on the condition of the beans and the climate condition. In lower altitude fermentation time is lower whereas in higher altitude fermentation time is a bit longer (30-50 hours). The coffee is then washed in huge quantities of water (about 1000 litters for 10 kilos of coffee. It must then be dried so that it retains about 12 percent moister. This can be done by sun or mechanical means in artificial drier. After seven to fifteen days bean are known as the parchment coffee and ideally remains in this form till exported.
The coffee will generally have a higher acidity and cleaner flavor than their dry cousins.
The dry processing method is not complicated as the wet method. It is all done with help of the sun. The cherries are spread out evenly on concrete table (Awudima). It is wise enough to use mesh wire and at least 70 centimeter from the ground, just to avoid the smell of earthy. Sun- dry takes at least three to five weeks to dry depending on the thickness of the layers of the cherries and weather condition. When is about to rain the cherries must be covered with plastic cover. To have even drying the workers has to turn it over at regular intervals to insure each drying and avoid fermentation of the lower layers. Once the moister is around 12% then it is ready for hulling.
The coffee cherries are washed and sorted as in the washed method, but are not placed in fermentation tanks. Instead they are set out to dry. Recently this method is being noticed in Ethiopia.
Mechanical removal of dried fruit tissues (cherry coffee) or dried fruit endo－carp (parchment coffee) from the coffee seeds.
The objectives of hulling is to remove the unwanted outer casing from the bean ‘husk’ in case of dry processed dry cherry an Parchment’ form the wet processed coffee (peeling). However, to break parchment it uses screw feed of reducing pitch into in confined space in which the parchment is broken by friction and removed by an air current. For dry processed coffee it could be of similar principle, but the mounting parts are feted with projection, which assist in tearing of the husk. Adequate machinery and properly maintained in good condition is essential treat to treat the beans a smoothly as possible. Breakage will be reduced to an absolute minimum and the hulling result itself will be satisfactory. Good machinery will also reduce the degree of cherries re-passing the huller due to poor hulling results. Excessive hulling pressure equals heat build- up which reduces quality, high pressure is often used when beans are of very- uneven moister content.
It is the separation of beans by different types of classes/ grades and the elimination of foreign matter. This includes sorting by size and shape, sorting by color, and sorting by density. Coffee is graded by size and density to give an end product that is as uniform as possible. Reasonable uniformity in bean size is important, because it is difficult to roast large beans together with very small light beans or broken beans. The smaller beans tend to over roast, as they require less roasting than large beans. Very small pieces of broken bean many even burn up altogether. It is therefore, an industrial requirement that coffee should size and density graded, it can be more easily and uniformly roasted there by helping to preserve liquor quality. Large and more solid beans usually have better liquors than small & light beans. Grading also serves to separate beans according to quality. General uniformity is the result of the various stages of separation, careful cleaning. Screening, density grading, size grading, dust removal and color grading. During washed coffee preparation the separation(by S&D) of cherries from the lighter and heavier foreign matter in the siphon tank or washing channel is possible. Besides separation by size and shape flat and drum screens may be used, air separator, catador and dencimetric machines are used for density separation.
Since then, Ethiopia as an agrarian country, in which its economy mainly depends on agricultural production. Among the agricultural production, the coffee sub-sector plays the major role in the economic growth/development of the country.
Our team is always here to address your inquiries, and we look forward to hearing from you.
+251 905 520 000
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