Best Ethiopian Coffee in 2023

Ethiopian Coffee

Ethiopia is famous in coffee growing especially because it is actually the coffee origin. It is well known for exporting some among the worlds to best coffees. Being the revered birthplace of all coffee growing, a legend exist that it was first discovered in 850 AD, by Kaidi who was grazing his goats when they eat coffee fruits and danced strangely. The ideal thing is that coffee was originally a wild tree in Ethiopia. It has grown for years and years as just indigenous plants.

Why Ethiopia is special in coffee production

Ethiopia was the first country to grow coffee specifically Arabica.

Ethiopia coffees have floral and bright fruitier taste with either light or medium body characterized by strong acidity.

Coffee is part of Ethiopian custom tradition where major events are initialized with coffee ritual.

Like Brazil almost half of total coffee produced is locally consumed.

Varieties grown in Ethiopia

Arabica

This type of coffee originated in Ethiopia. It is the present major exporter of this variety of coffee. It is organic, the best valuable and super standard coffee in the world. It has strong hints of sweetness unlike the caffeinated Robusta. More to this is that is the only variety of coffee frown in Ethiopia.

Conditions that favor the growth of coffee beans in Ethiopia

Ethiopia prides in perfect coffee production environment. High mountainous region in the southern region of the country is characterized by high mountains. This provides the perfect volcanic soils, ample rainfall and sunshine, moderate temperatures, rich deep fertile volcanic soils which are excellent requirement for good quality coffee farming.

Coffee grows without the use of artificial fertilizers under the shade amongst other plants. The environment supports thousand types of coffee without the need of customizing the conditions to favor certain varieties.

Flavor of Ethiopian beans

Ethiopia beans are recognized for their floral, fruitier and bright flavors. They are strong in acidity, complex taste with medium to light body. Method of processing contributes greatly to varying taste of the final coffee.

Two processing method of Ethiopian coffee

1. Washing – when processing coffee beans using washing, the cherry fruit is straightaway removed mechanically. Their flavor is usually complex and bright. It has a clean finished brew. Wet washing is a new method which is changing with the technology.

2. Naturally – coffee cherries are dried while the fruit is not yet removed. This makes the coffee to draw as much as possible fruit characteristics. The fruit pulp is removed only when exporting or selling. The coffee are characterized with strong hints of fruits (like blueberry) making them sweeter with deep chocolaty flavor and they are syrupy bodied. The country has used this method since it origin.

Coffee growing regions in Ethiopia

1. Sidamo Region on Ethiopia southern side

Most of Ethiopian coffee is produced around the infamous Yirgacheffe small town in Sidamo south most province. The region is known to consistently grow good quality coffee ranked high in the world. Varieties in this region are favored by wet processing. Their properties range from heavy acidity, fruit sweet, floral hints and light bodied.

2. Guji, South of Sidamo

It is a wonderful coffee growing region. Best roasters across the globe seek guji coffee for its uniqueness of like tea body, sweet melon and jasmine floral notes with peach hints.

3. Harrar, Eastern Ethiopia

The area is Famous for processing majority of their coffee through natural drying. The coffees have syrup like bode with winy and wild fruit hints.

Brewing Ethiopian coffee

Automatic dripping – The coffee produced in Ethiopia is best filtered since it is light bodied and very strong in bright acid. Freshly grounded and roasted coffee will produce a fantastic cup of coffee using this method. Paper filters help to bring Ethiopian coffee taste and aroma in clarity (brings acidity and body of the coffee perfectly.).

Pour over method- This method bring the best result since it allows much control on the brewing process meaning you can delay it enough until you achieve the more flavored coffee. Washed processed coffee is best filtered using thick paper to produce strong clean, tea bodied with brighter taste notes. Thinner paper is well brewed using light filters to highlight bright acid and syrupy bode with an acidic fruitier taste.

Cold brewing – Ice or cold Ethiopian coffee is characterized by peach or blueberry fruit smooth notes. Rough grounding is preferred for cold brew so as not to exaggerate the acidity. You can also prepare a cold brew by pouring hot coffee over the ice to preserve most coffee acid.

Roasting Ethiopian coffee

The very typical way of roasting Ethiopian coffee is through medium classic roast. The product is a medium body, sweet and well balanced brighter acid flavor. Dark roast hinders many of the flavors found in the Ethiopian coffee that best highlights it greatness and uniqueness.

Most roasters are making light roast their favorite. This method highlights the complex and tea bodied favors in clarity.

A hint that you should always remember is that coffee from Ethiopia is best taking without blending with other beans. It is very rich in itself and do not require boosting. Another thing is that it is best taken black owing to the fact that it has light bode, strong acidity and sweet. It does not match up to sugar and milk well.

Ethiopia coffee ceremony

Coffee is very vital in Ethiopia and holds a significant position in their social life. Coffee ceremony is the major connection to this. Ethiopians spend hours brewing and enjoying coffee each day. Being a guest at such moments shows friendship and more so respect.

The ceremony takes from two to three hours and it is very common for Ethiopian family to enjoy this twice or thrice a day. It is inclusive of everyone in the family where elders are sometimes served by children. People discuss more during these ceremonies where guests are also welcome.

Coffee drunk in these ceremonies is roasted on open fire using a pan and ground using a special mortar and pestle. The ground coffee is then boiled using traditional pot on open fire.

The coffee decanted by pouring carefully and slowly living grounds as residue. Mostly the coffee is taken with a spoon full of sugar but not with milk. They keep adding water to the pot to brew two or more times taking a weaker brew with each time. The taste does not matter since all the brews are equally important.

Production of the Ethiopian coffee

Ethiopia ranks fifth in all coffee producing nations in the world ranking first in Africa. They export as much coffee as the consumed locally. Coffee is a social cultural symbol as much as it is important economically.

Majority farmers are small scale. Commodity exchange of Ethiopia allows farmers to sell their coffee produce via a standardized process. Europe imports half while North America and Asia imports the rest of Ethiopian coffee. The nation controls just three percent of total coffee in the international market.

Commodity Exchange of Ethiopia (ECX)

ECX helped farmers to use a standardized procedure maximizing on their returns. Ii is also making it possible for roasters to trace back each single coffee to the washing stations though not yet possible to individual farmers. This will help washing companies to only seek the best coffees to create a reputation for future purchasing. This will in turn encourage farmers to improve the grades of their coffee since each coffee will be sold separately without mixing. Advantage of this is making farmers get payment for their coffee for what it is worth.

Additional Products to View

Congo Coffee
Zambian Coffee
Cameroon Coffee
Tanzanian Coffee
Java Coffee

CoffeeCupNews delivers the top Ethiopian Coffee with daily refreshed reviews and lists of the top selling and rated products. Don’t read old reviews, ours are current and relevant.