Ethiopia Yirgacheffe G1 Natural - Konga

Cooked peach, grapefruit, hops, pomelo, sweet

On Sale

Bag Weight	60 KG BAG
Harvest Season	2022/23
Status	Spot
Lot Number	P610930-1

Alameda, CA: Out of Stock Bag(s)

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About This Coffee

This naturally processed grade 1 lot is sourced from Konga Amederaro station in Konga village, Yirgacheffe. The station sits at 2,000masl and works with 1890 local farmers serviced by the Toracho river. Konga Amederaro is renowned for its excellence, having placed 7th in the inaugurul Ethiopia Cup of Excellence competition and placing on the final table for the Taste of Harvest competition in both 2018 and 2019. This consistently high performance is no fluke, but a product of the extremely strict and uncompromising standards.

The smallholder farmers in this region typically cultivate Jarc (an Ethiopian heirloom sub-variety) on small plots of land around their house. Hence, these plots are colloquially known as 'garden coffee'.

Country of Origin	Ethiopia
Region	Yirgacheffe
Producer Type	Small Holder Farmers
Farm Name	Various producers
Processing	Natural/Dry Processed
Processing Description	Sun-dried on raised beds
Growing Altitude	1800m - 2200m

Harvest Season	2022/23
Bag Weight	60 KG BAG
Bag Type	Barrels
Plant Species	Arabica
Variety	Ethiopia Heirloom

History of Coffee in Ethiopia

Coffee is ancient in Ethiopia, but coffee farming is not. By the end of the 9th Century coffee was actively being cultivated in Ethiopia as food, but probably not as a beverage. It was the Arab world that developed brewing. Even as coffee became an export for Ethiopia in the late 1800’s, Ethiopian coffee was the result of gathering rather than agricultural practices. A hundred years ago, plantations, mostly in Harar, were still the exception, while “Kaffa” coffee from the southwest was still harvested wild. In 1935, William Ukers wrote: “Wild coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. The trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, at a minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is said that in south-western Abyssinia there are immense forests of it that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts.”

Growing Coffee in Ethiopia

As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is home to more species of coffee plants than any place on earth, much of it still growing wild, and much of it still undiscovered. All Ethiopian coffee is Arabica and at least 150 varieties are commercially cultivated. Traditionally, these have simply been labelled as “heirloom varietals”; however, this is changing as the Jimma Agricultural Research Center works to identify species. Although there are a few estates in Ethiopia, 95% of coffee is grown by small land holders in a wide variety of environments, including “coffee forests” where coffee grows wild and is harvested by the local people. All specialty grade Ethiopian Coffee is grown above 4,000 feet and most above 6,000. In the highlands of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, coffee can grow above 7,000 feet.