Ethiopia’s not your typical coffee origin. It’s the birthplace of coffee. It’s the land of natural, ancient coffee forests. It’s the land of coffee dreams. With unrivaled coffee plant genetic diversity and, thus, unrivaled coffee flavor diversity, the Ethiopian coffee scene would take a lifetime to explore thoroughly..

This story begins with a legend.
Kaldi was a young goat herder who lived around 850 AD (or, so the legend goes). Every day he would take his goats to different pastures to graze. One day he noticed some of his goats were acting strange and jumping excitedly, not sleeping. He investigated and discovered that the goats were eating small berries off a shrub. Kaldi ate a few berries himself, felt elated and energized, and knew he’d found something special.

Kaldi brought a pocket-full of berries back home, where his wife encouraged him to take them to the monastery at Lake Tana. He did, but the monks didn’t react how he expected. “Devils work!” exclaimed a monk as he threw the berries into the fire.

But the aromas of the roasting berry seeds couldn’t be resisted. Monks from other areas of the monastery came to investigate, and the lead monk ordered the seeds be soaked in hot water to preserve the flavors. That night, as the monks drank the coffee and experienced the energy it gave them, they vowed to drink it daily to help them stay alert for their nightly devotions & prayers.

Over half of the coffee grown in Ethiopia is consumed in Ethiopia. Coffee is an important aspect of daily life for the locals, and there’s even a phrase in a local language that roughly translates to “coffee is our bread”. The ‘coffee ceremony’ is a social experience where the host harvests, roasts, and brews several cups of coffee all in one go. It’s a long, communal process that walks through the stages of seed to cup.

So, while you’ll find coffee with flavors all over the board, there’s a particular flavor profile that comes to mind more powerfully than the rest when we think about Ethiopia’s specialty coffee. The aromas are rich and unmistakable: berries—sweet, sweet berries. It’s incredible, and very different from your average coffee from anywhere else in the world. If you ever get a chance to try one of these exceptional coffees, don’t skip the chance !