Ethiopia

Ethiopia is where arabica comes from, and it is the origin where the variety field on a bag is least likely to mean anything.

“Heirloom” is not a variety

The word appears on an enormous number of Ethiopian coffees and it is not a botanical claim. It covers thousands of distinct local populations, most never formally described. Recording it as a variety is recording that nobody identified what was in the lot, which is a real and useful piece of information as long as it is labelled as such rather than as a name.

Alongside these are the Jimma Agricultural Research Center selections, which do have identities – 74110, 74112, 74158 and others – and those are worth recording precisely because they are identifiable.

Names that travel and lose their lineage

Several varieties famous in Latin America turn out to be Ethiopian landrace material in the group researchers call Core Ethiopia. Pink Bourbon, Chiroso and Sidra all carry names that suggest a Bourbon or Typica lineage they do not have. A variety table keyed on the name inherits the error and repeats it.

A record price that describes almost nothing

A record bid of $445 per pound has been reported at the Ethiopian Cup of Excellence. It is a real number for a real lot. It is also a competition auction result for a few hundred pounds of coffee, roughly one hundred and forty-five times the C market on a comparable day, and it says nothing whatsoever about what Ethiopian coffee generally transacts at. We keep it on the price ladder for exactly that reason: to show the distance.

Qualifications on the record

What the price actually refers to

A record Cup of Excellence bid of $445 per pound has been reported at the Ethiopian competition. That is a competition auction figure for a tiny lot and bears no relationship to what most Ethiopian coffee transacts at.

Harvest qualification

Windows shift by zone and by altitude band. Southern zones and western zones do not run to the same calendar.

Typical cup

Washed lots run floral and citric with a tea-like body; naturals run to blueberry and stone fruit. The range within the country is wider than the range between many other countries.

Varieties recorded here