Ethiopia

Ethiopian coffee is an adventure of flavour! As the birthplace of coffee, it offers insight into what the very first coffee consumed tasted like, and how it rose in popularity.  When reading about Ethiopian coffee production, before long, you’ll start to see the word “heirloom”. In Ethiopia, it is used as a catch-all term for the many wild or genetically undefined varieties that are native to the country. It is estimated that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 heirloom varieties in Ethiopia today, the majority of which have not been formally genetically identified.

Rather than farming like in most other parts of the world, coffee is still growing wild in many parts of Ethiopia. Coffee trees can be found growing on mountains and in ancient forests harvested and tended to by locals for generations.