Ethiopian Coffee – from the birthplace of coffee itself.

If you have ever wondered where coffee comes from, Ethiopian coffee was the first to be cultivated as a beverage...over a thousand years ago.

While coffee is almost synonymous with South and Central America these days, it is not indigenous to the continent. All of those coffees are descended from one plant brought over to the Caribbean from Europe.

But it’s in Ethiopia that it all started. And you can still get some outstanding coffees from there.

Coffee from Ethiopia has a distinctive taste of its own...

Put briefly, it doesn’t taste like your average Colombian brew. As one coffee taster puts it, “Ethiopian coffee can be described as medium-bodied and full of flavor. From good lots, you get a tangy, pungent brew with a lingering floral-almost perfumy-aroma.”

If it sounds exotic, it’s because it is. And the best Ethiopian beans are counted among the finest in the world.

Coffees from Sidamo and Yirgacheffe...

You’ll often come across Ethiopian coffees labeled as Sidamo. Sidamo is a major coffee growing region in southern Ethiopia, and Yirgacheffe is a small sub-region centered around a village of the same name. So in fact, Yirgacheffe coffees are Sidamos. 

There are other notable coffees from Ethiopia, such as the Harrar Longberry. But if you want to get a quality bean that gives you a feel for the best of Ethiopian coffees, try a half pound of the Yirgacheffe.

Recovering from times of turmoil...

Ethiopia is not blessed with political stability. Civil war, social unrest and widespread hunger have inevitably disrupted the growing and processing of coffee over the last decade.

However, production now seems to be on the increase and the quality of the coffee insists that any coffee lover try a fine Ethiopian brew at least once. 

Read our full review of a Sidamo coffee...

More about gourmet specialty coffee... 

About the author: Nick Usborne, aka Coffee Detective, is a writer and long-time coffee enthusiast. Read more…