Ethiopian Coffee: The Untold Story of Beauty and the Waves to Come | 25, Issue 13
The beauty of coffee in Ethiopia is to be found in the intersection of culture, nature, and technology; the tragedy, unlike English literature, remains the storytelling or lack thereof.
DAGMAWI I.E. explores the long, obscured history of Ethiopian coffee as told by others, and how owning and changing the narrative can lead it to a more sustainable future.
Unfortunately for Ethiopians and their coffee, the specialty coffee industry thrives on experience and the stories of the journey. Relationships built with coffee consumers help solidify the attachment with a brand and reputation of the storyteller, but not the producer. While coffee beans do also get some fame with the likes of rock stars Panama Geisha, Jamaica Blue Mountain, and Ethiopia’s Harrar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffee, the millions of hands that touch and help make the coffee fruit into the fuel of billions hardly get a nod. Thus, it seemed fitting to dedicate this story to the systematic effort to restart the relationship building process between origin and the coffee lovers of the world on behalf of the pioneers of coffee production and consumption in general and the specialty coffee in particular, i.e., Ethiopians that grow awesome coffee.
It is a blessing and a curse to be an Ethiopian in the coffee industry; the weight of Ethiopian coffees is overwhelming. Just imagine being the manager or coach for Bird and the Celtics, Jordan and the Bulls, or Messi and Barcelona, but barely delivering on the global stage. When a life is immersed in Ethiopian coffee, the hardest part of writing about it is the beginning. When the obsession is about the future of coffee as a platform for sustainable development of communities in both consuming and producing countries, then the hard part becomes the modeling of such systems that encourage local complexities and maintain global alignments across the coffee supply and value chains. Take a moment to reflect and internalize the dynamism of coffee: it simply overwhelms with an absurd level of complexity and then joy. However, the challenges presented by competing interests, systemic inequalities, and climate change make it clear that it is a necessity for the coffee industry, including that of specialty coffee and the new waves to come, to start telling new stories through new voices. We need to start with relatable facts and emerging possibilities that are inclusive and empowering.
The Land of Origin or Contrast or Both
Ethiopia is a famous but hardly explored and known destination. The country markets itself as the land of origin; it is the cradle of humankind and Coffea arabica and civilizations and natural beauty. However, it is also a country of contrast where the twenty-first century has barely arrived. Ethiopia is the largest landlocked country on the planet with a population that now exceeds 110 million, with some 5.2 million farmers considered coffee growers. Thus, even though Ethiopians grow some 5 percent of the coffee, they represent at least 20 percent of the world’s coffee farmers. The topography of Ethiopia is mesmerizing, earning it the nickname “the rooftop of Africa”; while the mean elevation is 1, 330 meters above sea level (masl), Ethiopia is home to one of the lowest points in the Danakil Depression at −125 masl and the highest point of Ras Dejen at 4,550 masl. As a result, Ethiopia is a globally recognized hotspot for biodiversity. Its society is also a melting pot of cultures and religions: it is where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam coexisted, since their early days, with all 80 plus ethnic groups and languages all living together as minority groups. Thankfully, they all share the coffee passion as coffee growers and/or consumers.
It’s almost a given that coffee lovers and professionals the world over will associate the origin story of C. arabica with Ethiopia and appreciate the quality of the beans as a natural phenomenon. What is overlooked is the miracle of it being the only tetraploid coffee species to date in the forest systems of Western Ethiopia, which extend into South Sudan. It captures the beauty of nature and its pursuit of genius through improbable but inevitable evolutionary events. It is best left to geneticists to say how common such a hybridization event between the mature cells of two species to create a new one is, but I’m sure it’s no walk in the park. Regardless, the spiritual power of the events that help create C. arabica can only be appreciated as a perfect storm that came to pass some 400,000 years ago.
Of course, the sequence of things in the natural world is another big topic in and by itself. Even today, we still see animals such as birds, civets, and monkeys enjoy the coffee fruit cherries, helping propagate the plant across the vast African continent where the majority of the 130 or so coffee species are to be found. As seeing is believing, it only seems natural and logical to assume that pre-humans also enjoyed the bright red and well-balanced fruitiness of the ripe coffee cherries. Unfortunately for them, modern humans who emerged some 200,000 years or so ago don’t acknowledge presence and complexity of things that easily. As a result, the story of coffee is mostly presented as a matter of being a dozen or so centuries old. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the physically connected natural systems of Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan of today represent the birthplace of both humanity and coffee, where their paths might have crossed on more than one occasion.
It might have taken a while, but Ethiopians likely first enjoyed coffee as a fruit far earlier than it is believed. Stories are told of travelers using coffee cherries as dried power snacks, processed in the shape of a meatball (how about that for possibilities and a potential recipe for a modern coffee bar product?). Fast forward a little, to where it is documented that Ethiopians practiced communal living as hunter-gatherers, animal keepers, and a settled agricultural society for at least 4,000 years. Here, we can accommodate the tale of Kaldi the Shephard who discovered coffee with the help of his goats. But with Ethiopian women being the innovators and guardians of the art of living coffee, it seems only fitting to dedicate and celebrate them as the discoverers of coffee.
Ethiopian Women, the Guardians of the Art of Living Coffee
The evolution of coffee in Ethiopia is quite distinct. To this day coffee remains a social drink where it is freshly roasted, ground, and brewed for immediate consumption by women at home over a ceremony that lasts well over an hour. The attachment of Ethiopian women to coffee is so dominant, Ethiopians would only be puzzled to hear of the existence of initiatives such as #ShesTheRoaster that are meant to bring about equality and equity in the global coffee industry. If it was not for the commercialization of coffee in Ethiopia and the associated business activities that generate cash, the men of Ethiopia would have remained beekeepers and committed coffee drinkers.
Anyhow, these reflections are only meant to highlight the natural fit between Ethiopian coffee and specialty coffee; the concern for quality, including freshness of inputs and processes, is an obsession for both. There are also moments and events that capture this link and synergy, like barista competitions and the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Interestingly, both evolved to become events to showcase quality, creativity, and skills; it’s mostly the players and the reward that are distinctly different: the latter is dominated by young Ethiopian women trying to showcase their skills and win acknowledgement as marriage material. Nevertheless, Ethiopians still consume over 250,000 tons of green coffee beans annually and mostly at home. This figure will change significantly if systematic efforts are made to document the volume of coffee cups consumed through lightly roasted coffee leaves and coffee husks as both coffee, tea, and latte drinks across communities throughout the year.
Specialty coffee also thrives in innovation where most innovations are not disruptive but rather adaptive. A case in point globally will be the effort underway to introduce lab-manufactured coffee: regardless of perception, it will disrupt the industry in more ways than one. Within specialty coffee, processing methods that go beyond simple washed coffee that involve various fermentation processes on both natural and washed coffee varieties are now becoming “ the thing to do,” but fermentation- dependent natural coffee processing methods have long been a hallmark of Ethiopian coffee. Ethiopia still produces the majority of its coffee via natural drying methods and smallholder farmers still use some form of fermentation of the cherries before drying. In most cases, they don’t use African beds, managing it instead on a much smaller scale. This is because the average smallholder farmer covers fewer than 0.12 hectares (ha) of land with coffee, representing under 15 percent of the 0.9 ha of average farm size that an Ethiopian farmer holds. Taking into account the millions of dollars of investment made over the past four decades to significantly increase washed coffee supply, it seems appropriate to genuinely explore the position of Ethiopian coffees in the specialty coffee industry, positioning it as a pioneer and leader of the waves to come across the value chains, including consumption trends.
The Simple Possibility of Sustainable Living with Coffee
With five million plus farmers who dedicate fewer than 0.15 ha of their plot for coffee, Ethiopia is the epicenter of microlots. Ethiopians also practiced homebased natural fermentation processing techniques for centuries to simplify the hulling process while creating beautiful and complex flavor profiles. Most farmers still grow coffee for home consumption first as they maintain their status as subsistence farmers. This synergy with the current trends in specialty coffee is an opportunity for Ethiopia to ensure the sustainable nature of coffee cultivation, especially when seen in the context of the large domestic market that can easily empower smallholder farmers with the availability of a dynamic and nearby market that completely removes other market players. The latter will still be critical for the aggregation and distribution of coffee and still requires new investment into systems and technology adaptation. However, the stories to be realized for Ethiopia and its coffee will depend a great deal on where it wants to thrive in the decades to come.
Ethiopia recognizes technology and tourism as pillars for a sustainable development agenda and climate change resilient economy; coffee has an amazing potential to thrive in these sectors. To this day, more coffee is cultivated in natural forests than commercial farms. In truth, it might be better to say that coffee from the natural or managed forests of Ethiopia is only harvested while nature still takes care of the cultivation! The hunter and gatherer founding fathers of coffee would likely find the places familiar enough while being disappointed by the level of deforestation that makes the forest system look like a Swiss cheese. There’s still hope, though. Ethiopia also maintains these forest systems, and five are now designated as UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, necessitating their protection as a biodiversity hotspot. For the communities in and around these Biosphere Reserves of west and southwest Ethiopia, their innovation extends into the brewing and consumption of coffee. Their enjoyment of roasted and boiled coffee leaves infused with herbs and spices to fuel their day could be a starting point for new products for the specialty coffee industry.
However, the true value of the Biosphere Reserves is in the genetic diversity of C. arabica and a natural forest system for eco-tourism. Ethiopia needs to explore opportunities for partnership or duplicate approaches being pioneered by institutions such as the World Coffee Research (WCR) to not just contribute but also lead efforts in the development of the seedling industry for coffee. Ethiopia primarily needs to invest in biotechnology through the existing agricultural institutions that can support the development of the sector; however, to date, it has lacked the courage and foresight to articulate a bold vision that goes beyond green coffee production. Institutions concerned with Ethiopian coffee also tend to be reactionary to global market dynamics rather than systems thinkers and strategic planners for a future that they can help create. A moment of reckoning is coming with climate change and the challenges and opportunities it creates. Ethiopia can choose to write new stories that can include genomics and eco-tourism and become a hub for global coffee research, learning, and sharing. In the meantime, the world moves on with amazing possibilities, and let us hope it will simply not be a tic-talk.
DAGMAWI IAYSU EMINETU is a serial entrepreneur with a diverse background in biochemistry, public health, and coffee economics.
We hope you are as excited as we are about our return with the release of 25, Issue 13. A return to print and the availability of these features across sca.coffee/news wouldn’t have been possible without our generous underwriting sponsors for this issue: Bellwether Coffee, DaVinci Gourmet, and Pacific Foods. Thank you so much for your support! Learn more about our underwriters here.