Ethiopia Aricha

Product detailed description

Farm: Many farms in the Aricha region
Region: Yirgacheffe
Variety: Many native varieties, so-called "heirloom"
Altitude: 2150 m a.s.l.
Importer: Falcon Specialty
Harvest: 2025
Grade: 1

Origin and Harvest

The production of Ethiopian coffee is strongly influenced by the country's three main seasons. The Bega season (October–January) is a long dry period crucial for coffee harvesting and processing. The Belg season (February–May) brings the first rains, essential for coffee flowering and early fruit development. During the Krempt season (June–September), heavy eastern rains are vital for the later stages of coffee cherry development and ripening. By the end of September, the rains suddenly stop, allowing the cherries to ripen fully, with harvest peaking in November.

About Ephtah Specialty Coffee

Ephtah Specialty Coffee is dedicated to building sustainable and collaborative supply chains that benefit customers, growers, and their communities. The company emphasizes the empowerment of women in the coffee industry, recognizing their key role in driving social and economic change in Ethiopia. Ephtah ensures quality at every stage of the transport process while focusing on delivering the finest green coffee beans and maintaining satisfaction throughout the supply chain.

Aricha, Yirgacheffe Region

This coffee comes from the Yirgacheffe Aricha region, with Ephtah funding 80% of production costs and the supplier covering the remaining 20%. The region is predominantly Christian, with both Protestant and Orthodox communities.

The supplier of this coffee lot is Girma Tamiru, which means "graceful miracle" in Amharic. This facility, with 200 beds, sources coffee from Aricha and has been operating for three years, collaborating with Ephtah for the last two. The farm covers 2.5 hectares at around 2100 meters above sea level, while Aricha itself sits at approximately 2150 MASL. The farm grows heirloom coffee varieties and employs at least six permanent workers, with about 100 workers hired during the harvest season from November to January.

About This Coffee Lot

This coffee from Aricha, Yirgacheffe, grown at 2150 MASL, was harvested in a total quantity of approximately 9000 kg. Smallholder farmers cultivate the coffee under false banana trees (also known as "enset") in shaded conditions. While the coffee is grown organically, certification is not available due to high verification costs. The coffee undergoes nine days of fermentation in plastic barrels, followed by 13–18 days of drying. It is stored on-site before being transported to Addis Ababa. The processing methods are chosen to maximize the intense, juicy flavor characteristic of this coffee. After drying and storage, the coffee is transported to Moplaco in Gerji, Addis Ababa, and then shipped by rail for export via Djibouti.

Economic, Social, and Administrative Aspects

Ephtah has implemented several social and environmental projects connected with this coffee lot. Due to liquidity issues in the area, Ephtah funded the purchase of coffee cherries. The company also donated engineering infrastructure and launched its Ama Commitment program in Idido, which includes craft workshops and a day center. Farmer payments are structured so that Ephtah covers 80% and the supplier covers 20%, ensuring timely compensation for the harvested coffee.

General Coffee Cultivation Context

The main challenge faced during this growing cycle was unusually high rainfall, which made proper coffee drying more difficult. Despite these challenges, the operation remains committed to producing high-quality coffee and contributing to the local economy. In addition to coffee, farmers grow false bananas used to make a local food called kocho. The Ephtah site in Aricha is ready for future investment and development, focusing on maintaining and enhancing the coffee quality in the region.

Varieties and "Heirloom"

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word "heirloom" has the following meanings:

1. a valuable object that has been given by older members of a family to younger ones over many years
2. a fruit, plant, or seed of a type that has existed for many years

In agriculture, an "heirloom" variety refers to a plant with a family or community heritage, much like inherited jewelry or furniture. From a macro-botanical perspective, heirloom varieties must be open-pollinated. Since Arabica coffee is a self-pollinating species, the term "heirloom" technically doesn't apply to it. However, in the coffee industry, especially in Ethiopia, "heirloom" is commonly used to describe unknown or mixed cultivated varieties from specific lots, farms, or regions where the trees have been planted and passed on from grower to grower over the years.

As the specialty coffee movement has grown globally, traceability and access to information have become increasingly important. Although the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) has worked on developing new varieties since the 1970s, importers had limited access to detailed data to describe Ethiopian coffees. Thanks to professionals like Getu Bekele and others who study both wild and cultivated Ethiopian varieties, we can now distinguish between two major groups: regional landraces and JARC-improved varieties.

There are estimated to be 6,000 to 10,000 regional varieties, and JARC has developed around 60 improved varieties that have been distributed to coffee farmers across the country. These improved varieties address issues such as Coffee Berry Disease (CBD), rust, cup quality, and yield, and are widely used across Ethiopia's coffee-growing areas.

Each Ethiopian coffee region today has a specific mix of improved and regional varieties adapted to the unique conditions of that area.

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We roast coffee 3 times a week, so you'll always receive it freshly roasted. We've been roasting our own coffee since 2019 in Silůvky, Moravia.