Ethiopia Raro Natural ESPRESSO

Origin: Ethiopia

Region: Guji

Sub region: Uraga

Village: Raro Nansebo

Altitude: 2100 - 2350 meters above sea level

Variety: Kurume

Process: Natural

Tasting Notes: Juicy and syrupy with notes of raspberry, blueberry, papaya and jasmine.

Ethiopia is the center of origin and genetic diversity for arabica coffee ( Coffea arabica L). If one travels in the different coffee growing areas in Ethiopia, the chance of seeing very diverse coffee trees growing next to each other in a random coffee farm is very high. Most coffee farmers in Ethiopia grow both improved coffee varieties and their own local landraces (varieties). Improved coffee varieties are those coffee types which are selected by breeders at the national coffee research center in Jimma, Ethiopia. Farmers access starting seeds of the improved varieties through the formal coffee seed distribution system established by the government.

Farmers also access seeds of local landraces from their farm, neighbor and local market. Like most of the farmers in Ethiopia, coffee farmers in Raro Nansabo village also produce both improved and local landrace coffee varieties. Mostly, farmers mix and plant different coffee varieties together. Walichu, Miqe, Badessa and Kudhume are the popular local landrace coffee varieties in Guji. There are few farmers who keep their farm separate for both variety groups.

Dambi Udo Agro Industry works with a few smallholder coffee farmers who separately produce the famous local landrace coffee variety called “Kudhume”(or Kurume). G Broad has been putting a lot of effort to discover unique coffees on the basis of variety and promote those as a variety separated lot in the international market. Bi-Lab and Co-Lab collaborated in this effort of promoting Ethiopian coffee varieties and thereby sharing the deliciousness of some of the
amazing varieties such as Kudhume.

In Guji and Gedeo, there is a perennial indigenous tree known for its small fruit size, disease resistance and bearing large numbers of fruit in a consistent way over years. This tree is known as Kudhume and Kurume in Guji and Gedeo respectively. Farmers in those areas associated the morphological characteristics of the indigenous tree with a local landrace coffee variety which exhibits similar characteristics: smaller leaves, disease resistant and many smaller fruits produced every year. Due to their common characteristics, the local landrace coffee variety is named after the name of the indigenous tree. Kudhume has a compact canopy and relatively small leaves with new growth that is generally green. Notable JARC variety selections 74110, 74112, 74148, and 74158 share similar morphological characteristics and could potentially be reclassified as Kurume “type.” The coffee is known for its syrup and juicy body and structure
with sweet taste, flavors of complex tropical fruit (papaya, mango) and citrus (orange), and floral (jasmine).

Well ripened red cherries are dried for 18-21 days on a raised bed with geotextile mesh laid on the bed, usually called African bed. Quality control is performed by daily visual inspection of the drying cherries, removing undesirable fruit. A total of 11 Kg of red coffee cherry per square meter is distributed on a drying bed made of Bamboo mat. To maintain uniform drying among beans, the coffee is turned around on the bed manually six times per day. The cherry is then covered with nylon mesh and plastic during the night time. Starting the 15th day, the trend of
coffee bean moisture loss is monitored to pull the dried cherry off the bed if the coffee bean attains a moisture level between 9.5% and 10.5%. This natural coffee processing technique plus the complex interactions among soil, rainfall distribution, temperature, shade, and genetic makeup of varieties play the greatest role to affect the quality profile of a specific coffee lot.