Ethiopian Coffee History Ethiopia Harald Coffee

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Ethiopia is recognized as the birthplace of coffee, but it must be added that the Arabica line was first found in southern Sudan and did not flourish until it spread to Ethiopia. As a result, people here began to eat coffee fruit, initially as a fruit rather than a drink. Yemen was the first country to use coffee trees as a crop, but Ethiopia had already collected wild coffee fruits earlier.

Coffee may have been exported from Ethiopia as early as the 1600s, when cafes appeared in Yemen and the Middle East, when European businessmen were politely turned down even if they were interested in buying it. The Ethiopian coffee boom began to fade as coffee was grown in Yemen, Guawa and the Americas. Ethiopia's renewed attention dates back to the early 1800s, when historical documents recorded the export of 10,000 kilograms of coffee from Ethiopia. By the 19th century, Ethiopian coffee had two different grades of coffee beans, Harari and Abyssinia, so coffee beans from Harari have long been more popular.

The 1950s was the era of institutional expansion of the Ethiopian coffee industry, when a new grading system began to emerge. However, when something changed after the overthrow of the government in 1970, the elite, tired of famine and political conflict, promoted the coup. Until then, Ethiopia had been locked up, the government adopted a system similar to feudalism, one of the new practices included land redistribution, and the government immediately launched a restructuring of land nationalization. some people believe that these practices are relatively beneficial to the people, but also have a profound impact on the coffee industry, large-scale farming methods have been abandoned, Ethiopia has returned to the era of collecting wild coffee.

Ethiopia has an almost legendary status among coffee producers, not only because it is the "birthplace" of Arabica coffee, but also because it is different from most coffee-growing countries. Coffee is not a plant that colonizes exotic cash crops. On the contrary, growing, processing and drinking coffee has been part of the local way of life for centuries, and it was first discovered that coffee grown in the forest was gradually cultivated artificially for household use and commercial sale.

From an outsider's point of view, Ethiopian coffee has a huge and complex impact on culture, politics and economy that is difficult to fully understand. The genetic diversity of Ethiopian coffee is unparalleled in the world, and 99% of coffee varieties can be found in Ethiopia. (roast magazine recently reported that due to climate change, as well as variety research and other reasons, the genetic damage of the original Ethiopian coffee varieties should be paid attention to.

Another unique feature of Ethiopian coffee is its very high domestic consumption, as coffee plays a very important role in the daily life of Ethiopians: about half of the country's annual production of 6.5 million bags is consumed domestically and about 3.5 million bags are exported.

Coffee is still part of a traditional "ritual" preparation, a way of reuniting family, friends and partners. The eldest woman in the family would bake the coffee in a pan, grind it up, and cook it in a pot called "jebena". She filled the thick coffee in a small cup. Then add fresh boiling water and make the coffee in the pot twice. This process takes about an hour from the beginning to the end, which is a regular expression of hospitality.

Most coffee growers in Ethiopia belong to small farmers with an area of less than 1 hectare; in many cases, this mode of cultivation should be more accurately referred to as "garden / pastoral coffee cultivation", where there are some large private coffee farms, as well as cooperatives of small and medium-sized farms, where growers produce only a relatively small amount of raw beans for commercial use.