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Ethiopia Guji G1 Natural - Uraga

Blueberry, strawberry, chocolate, caramel sauce
TOP LOT
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Bag Weight 60 KG BAG
Harvest Season 2023/24
Status Spot
Lot Number P612194-1
  • 40 Bag(s)
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About This Coffee

Uraga washing station is located in Guji district, Sidama zone, in the Oromia region of Southern Ethiopia.The station includes 10 standardised fermentation tanks and 215 drying beds. Coffee trees are typically shaded by Cordia and Acacia trees and the predominant varietals are known locally as Kumie, Diga & Wilsho.  Grown at altitudes between 1950 and 2000 masl, the farmers deliver ripe coffee cherries to the local Uraga washing station managed by Haji Feku. After careful sorting and floatation to select only the highest quality cherries, the intact fruit is laid out on raised beds and sun-dried for up to 18 days. The coffee is covered between 12pm and 3pm to protect it from the hot sun, and at night time to protect from rainfall and condensing ambient moisture. Once the coffee has dried to the optimum level it is transported to Addis Ababa for dry-milling, grading, sorting and handpicking, before being bagged in GrainPro for export.

Country of Origin Ethiopia
Region Uraga, Guji
Producer Type Washing Station
Farm Name Various smallholders
Wet Mill Uraga Station
Processing Natural/Dry Processed
Processing Description Sun-dried on raised beds
Growing Altitude 1950m - 2000m
Harvest Season 2023/24
Bag Weight 60 KG BAG
Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
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.

  • Region Uraga, Guji
  • Farm Name Various smallholders
  • Producer Type Washing Station
  • Wet Mill Uraga Station
  • Processing Natural/Dry Processed
  • Processing Description Sun-dried on raised beds
  • Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
  • Plant Species Arabica
  • Variety Ethiopia Heirloom
  • Min Growing Altitude 1950m
  • Max Growing Altitude 2000m
  • On Sale No
  • Top Lot Yes
  • Status Spot
  • Coffee Grade ETH CA NAT GUJ G1
  • CTRM Contract Number P612194-1
  • Country of Origin Ethiopia
  • Warehouse Continental NJ