September 2024 Subscription - Back to the future

A coffee is always more special when you know more about what that thing is and where it comes from. I'll never forget my first washed coffee from Yirgacheffe, now decades ago. It was so distinctly soapy and dripping with stonefruit (in my mind anyway) and I can pull it from my memory like the entirety of Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill album. It's just permanently there. When I found out that all those florals and fruits were simply there because that's what coffee from Yirgacheffe is, I had to know more. Maybe it's my self diagnosed ADHD, but 20 odd years of hyper focussing later, I'm still chasing the flavour that broke my brain in the best way. 

KEW gardens (UK) shares that "There are **124 species of coffee, but we rely on just two for 99% of our coffee consumption**: Arabica and robusta, making up 56% and 43% of global production (respectively). Arabica, originating from the highlands of Ethiopia and South Sudan, is a cool-tropical plant with a mean annual temperature requirement of around 19⁰C."

Though you could try to argue that with the discovery of various new species of coffee (Stenophylla, found in West Africa and other tiny knobby shaped curious species found in Madagascar) Ethiopia, perhaps, may not have been the only place that coffee was growing at first. Indisputably, though, Ethiopia birthed an ancestral coffee culture that persists to this day.  

Ten years after my first interaction with that soapy peachy Yirgacheffe, my hyper focussing on coffee led me into a job where I got to see the cradle of coffee (and humanity) for myself. In Ethiopia you can spend a lot of time driving. The first time I had gone south (Guji, Gedeb, Shakisso) the 'belt and road' initiative was just beginning - An agreement with between China and Ethiopia to build infrastructure in order to secure favourable trade deals. Pragmatically for me and my fellow travellers this meant a paved road and multiple hours gained by the time we reached Hawassa and eventually Dilla, where much of the coffees are stored and where grading happens before export.  

Eventually, those paved roads wane -  The lush enset (false banana) plants towering, the coffee forests and round thatched roof homes greeting us, a kaleidoscope of green and a feeling that we had reached an incredibly special, ancient place so full of life. 

Coffee is roasted at all hours of the day everywhere throughout the country, even outside nightclubs at 1am. Seriously.  Coffee, like meals, are non negotiable. The culture is soaked in it. Roadside outdoor cafes are common too, and you can stop for a small, handleless teacup sized spot of coffee, always at a thick 9:1(ish) ratio, brewed in something called a jebena. 

Find where the good people are, everything else just flows

The box this month is all about the South - but I want to detour for a second to the west because it's important context. Over in Jimma, there's a big statue of a jebena - an elegant tall brewer made of pottery with a handle and spout with an open fluted top. In the middle of the town sat this thing. James and the Giant Jebena. A towering giant reminder of what this society values deeply. One street over was the Technoserve office, who were there in the early 2010s with the goal of taking a bunch of coops around Jimma and Agaro who weren't currently exporting, and facilitating their rise to some of the top names when we think of iconic coffees. Duromina. Yukro. Nano Challa. 

This Technoserve office is where I met Moata. The energy at that time was electric in 2014 , the final years of the project in Jimma and Agaro- Everyone was seeing the results of coops who, just a couple years prior, didn't have coffee fit for export. This was a project that was incredibly effective, and Moata, natively from Jimma, had a lot to do with the shared success of why we still know those coffees around the world.  

So when I saw that Moata and Asnake (previously hired as a Technoserve field assistant for the same project) were now working with Crop to Cup (who imported both coffees in your box this month), I jumped at the chance to work with coffees facilitated by these folks again. They deeply care about the people and the quality and it shows on both accounts and in the coffees we get to enjoy that have freshly landed on the west coast for y'all.

Heirlooms and landraces

It used to be that we as an industry were notably at arms length with knowing and sharing varieties from Ethiopia relative to other areas. Not because we didn't want to, it was more that we didn't have enough access. 

You hear more and more about Kurume, and Wolisho and other more specific names in place of the common 'Ethiopian Heirloom' on bags from roasters. What things led to that change? 

The publishing of a book by Getu Bekele and Tim Hill - 'A Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Varieties',  was a pivotal moment. It's not easy to get this book since there was only one print run in 2018. It might be out of print sadly (I hope they do a second edition!).

This book exudes a reverence for lineage and giving the kind of detail that other coffee countries have been able to enjoy - Coupled with the timing of the book's release (in 2018 Ethiopia's coffee export rules were liberalized, allowing single producers ability to export their own coffee. Prior to this, the only way to export a coffee that wasn't just 'yirg grade 1' 'sidamo grade 2' was through Cooperative unions). Cascading positive effects around sharing colloquial names of varieties, increased transparency and ability to buy from individual farms flourished in the last few years. With the introduction of Cup of Excellence in Ethiopia for the first time in 2020, an excitement around sharing specifics flourished and today, it's a lot easier to find specific info around variety - But it does require working with people who share that thirst for knowledge. 

Facilitation is Everything. 

Much like the dry mill bits I was talking about last month, there's another part of the process that's not as talked about or is even hidden, but this is how the delicious sausage gets made, and it's worth turning inside out to learn how crucial and exciting the work is to the process of getting these coffees to your kitchen- Let's talk about importers and exporters. 

Moata and Asnake are two familiar faces I worked with in Ethiopia when I was doing more in the field buying work back in 2014 so it's incredibly comforting to have some familiar faces in our corner for these two buys and *many more* coming down the pipe. Additionally, there are two new (to me) faces that had a sizeable role in the Crop to Cup teamwork, and that's all rounder coffee wizard Christopfer Feran (who wrote the below mentioned Processing Recipe Book for their Ethiopia producer network) and the ineffable Danny (USA folks, check out Botz!) playing matchmaker with lots for us and other roasters who appreciate how involved C2C have demonstrated to be. 

C2C shared an absolute MAMMOTH LIST of activities they carried out as part of the 2024 harvest season. This is incredibly impressive. It's fair to say these folks are incredibly hands on, nerdy, heart and head in the right place. This is the kind of stuff we'd love to be doing if we were a larger roaster - It's not feasible to work this way in Ethiopia unless you're buying multiple containers (at the very least 1!), so instead we support folks whose work we respect and admire. Pool our efforts.

Ethiopia releases for Luna will continue into the winter, and I mean, just look at what Crop to Cup has been up to leading into the harvest represented in your box this month: 

From C2C:

“For 2024, in order to give our partners the best possible opportunity for success, we:

 - purchased moisture meters, shade cloth, and infrared thermometers and provided a Drying Best Practices Handbook as well as Processing Recipe Book (both translated into Amharic);

 - added a full-time Senior Field Officer (Asnake Nigat) to the C2C Ethiopia team to oversee harvest activities in the West;

 - provided ongoing feedback to producers throughout the harvest from our export lab in Addis and our processing specialist in the U.S.;

 - financed the purchase of hand pulpers for smallholders;

 - offered a second payment for lots that cup 87+ and present without quakers as PSS; and

 - provided producers with training before, during and after harvest to support on best practices for cherry selection, processing, drying and storage of their coffee.”

Layo Toraga cooperative in Guji with 74110 variety (Metu Bishari lineage), sweet with vanilla melon and honey florals and Habtamu Fikadu and their outgrowers efforts in Gedeb with Kurume ‘types’ 74110 and 74112 - Full of that peachy complex florality that left me obsessed with chasing flavour all those years ago, are two wonderful examples from what Crop to Cup has been able to facilitate in this harvest year for Ethiopia - Much more to come!

Enjoy both this month!

Laura (& Nate) 

Layo Teraga Coop

Processing:Farmers deliver cherry to the central washing station, where they are pulped and undergo single fermentation spanning 45 hours. Drying takes 12 days on raised beds.

Oromia, Guji Zone, Uraga Woreda, Ethiopia

1814 smallholder members  

Varieties Primarily 74110 (Metu Bishari)

Layo Teraga cooperative was founded in 1976 with the aim of providing market access for its smallholder members that would otherwise not have existed in Guji, where prices for coffee have historically been lower than neighboring Gedeo or Sidama zones because of this lack of market access. Located in northern Uraga in the Guji zone, the 1841 smallholder members of the cooperative grow coffee in gardens around their homes in semi-forested environments at staggeringly high elevations of around 2342 MASL.

About Metu Bishari lineage (74110)

JARC researchers selected the mother tree of this variety in 1974 in the Bishari village of the Metu province in the Illuababora zone. The seeds from the mother tree subsequently went on to be cultivated for ongoing field and lab research. It was confirmed as both having resistance to coffee berry disease and having high-yield potential it was subsequently approved for cultivation in 1979. Today, it's among the most famous and ubiquitous varieties in Ethiopia, known to have a floral citric profile.

Habtamu Fikadu 

Varieties: 74110, 74112 (Kurume 'type')

Gedeb, Ethiopia

Traceable to: 140 smallholders

Processing: Cherry is purchased from local collection centre and registered out-growers and trucked to the washing station, where it is pulped, undergoing a submerged fermentation spanning 48-72 hours depending on the temperature. This is followed by a second 12-hour submerged fermentation after washing. Drying takes 10-12 days on raised beds.

Habtamu Fikadu Aga was founded in 2015 by Aaga Dinsa, the grandson of a coffee farmer in Kuri kebele in Wollega (in the west) who got his start in 1945. Two generations later, Habtamu operates washing stations in Wollega, Guji and Jimma in addition to this one in Gedeb (they have five total currently). The company holds organic certification as well as Fair for Life certification. Through Fair for Life, Habtamu Fikadu contributes $0.12 per pound of exports for the as well as 5% of company profits to a development fund reinvested in the community through food, clothing, schooling, roads, and facilities and equipment for healthcare. Until the sweeping changes to the Ethiopian export system in the 2017/18 harvest season, Habtamu Fikadu sold coffee through ECX but now engages in direct export.

About Kurume 'type'"

Kurume was originally the name of a tree (not coffee) indigenous to the south, known for small fruits with good yield. There are also varieties of coffee in Gedeo and neighbouring areas that share the qualities of the Kurume tree so the name stuck for the coffee trees locally. This is a regional landrace highly familiar to Gedeo and Guji coffee farmers. 

Kurume has a tight, compact stature with small leaves with green tips, generally. There's a remark in The Reference Guide to Ethiopian Coffee Varieties (Bekele, Hill,. 2018) that since Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) variety selections 74110 & 74112 share similar characteristics that they have potential to be reclassified as Kurume 'type'. 

Luna is powered by Laura & Nate, two industry nerds from Vancouver, Canada. What you just read comes as a printed colour zine each month, alongside two coffees specifically sourced for subscribers. Join us next time!