What is the wild heirloom coffee bean in Arabica, the main coffee bean growing area in Ethiopia?

Although Ethiopia is famous as the birthplace of coffee, it is still the darling of the boutique coffee industry because of its incredible flavors. It is admittedly difficult to have full traceability in recent history, when new regulations made direct procurement possible.

When did Ethiopia start growing coffee? Coffee is very old in Ethiopia, but coffee cultivation is not. By the end of the 9th century, Ethiopia began to actively grow coffee beans as food, but probably not as a drink, unless it was tea with cherries instead of coffee beans. In most stories, it is the Arab world that develops brewing through a series of accidents. The coffee was accidentally roasted, ground and put into the water. By the time Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the good news was that they had brought coffee. Even if coffee becomes an Ethiopian export, Ethiopian coffee is the result of harvesting rather than agricultural practice. A hundred years ago, plantations, mainly in Haller, were still the exception, while "Kafa" coffee in the southwest was still harvested in the wild. In 1935, William Yukes wrote:

"Wild coffee, also known as kafa coffee, comes from one of the areas where it grows most abundantly in its natural state. The trees grow so luxuriantly that the possible supply, at least when collecting labor, is virtually unlimited. It is said that in the southwest of Abyssinia, there are large forests that have never been occupied except in the suburbs. "

After making us all dream of endless Ethiopian wild coffee forests, some of which may never be seen by humans, let alone roasted and brewed, Ukers continues to describe how the coffee is processed: it is discovered in the most primitive way and disappears in a dirty, mixed state. "

Where is the origin of Ethiopian coffee? Over the years, most Ethiopian coffee has come from one of three growing areas: Haller in the east and Yegashafi and Sidamo in the south. Technically, Yirgacheffe is part of Sidamo. Today, boutique coffee can come from several other regions, including Kafa and Lim in the west, and Guji in the south.

At what altitude does Ethiopian coffee grow? All premium Ethiopian coffee grows above 4000 feet, and most of them grow above 6000 feet. In the highlands of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, coffee can grow above 7000 feet.

It ranks fifth in coffee production. The average annual output is 6740000 bags.

The common Arabica varieties are local varieties and JARC varieties. As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia has more species of coffee plants than anywhere else on earth, most of which still grow in the wild, most of which have not yet been discovered. All Ethiopian coffee is Arabica coffee, and at least 150 varieties are grown commercially. Traditionally, these have been simply marked as "heirloom varieties"; however, that is changing as the Jima Agricultural Research Center works to identify species.

Coffee production area is: Djimma | Limu | Nekempt | Guji | Yirgacheffe (Yirga Chefe) | Gedeb | Sidamo | Kochere

Coffee harvest season: October-December at low altitude and November-January at high altitude.