OK, the truth is that we’ve been receiving Ethiopian coffees for months now, but unless you are booking forward with us, you’ve likely not seen many, if any, available on our SPOT Offering List. This is because they’ve all been selling out in advance of arrival, or shortly thereafter.

Happily, we are about to reach that point of critical mass when enough coffee is arriving at once that even the very best lots will be available to sample and purchase SPOT. It also means we will have a wide variety of styles to fit every need. But while even Grade 4’s are valid and deserving, I am choosing to focus here on some of the top quality standouts in our September arrival queue.

Woman Producers

Undoubtedly, the coolest thing about the post-ECX landscape is the ability to purchase coffee directly from small farmers, or as is often the case, small groups of affiliated farmers who now work independently of the larger Unions. It is impossible not to notice how almost all the farmers are men, though. With few exceptions, including Marta Alemu (who’s coffee returns for a Crown Jewel run this year in October) and Bedhatu Jibicho (who admittedly, at over 80 years old, is no longer doing much farming herself these days), there just haven’t been many women-owned farms to buy from, particularly on the smaller and mid-sized end of the spectrum. As anyone who has visited Ethiopia can attest, this is not because women aren’t involved in the coffee industry there. Ethiopian gender norms aside, it is with great pleasure that we add three new women coffee farmers to our lineup this season: Hirut Shallo, Tewabech Tilo, and Tewabech Shasho.

After almost 20 years of buying Ethiopian coffee, I can safely say Gedeb is my favorite region of my favorite producing country. I know I’m not supposed to play favorites, but I can’t help it. The combination of juicy acidity and big, bouncy fruit flavors in both processing styles which originate in this super-high altitude district make it number one on my list.

28586 Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gedeb 1 Washed Organic Beriti 113 Grainpro Bags
28869 Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gedeb 1 Natural Organic Chelbesa Grainpro Bags
27676 Ethiopia Gedeb 1 Washed Banko Gotiti Grainpro Bags

Elegant & Refined 

With that said, I do recognize that the bigger, swaggering profile of a lot of Gedeb coffee isn’t always what you or your customers are looking for. Sometimes you want something thique, sometimes you want something more elegant and refined. For the latter group, we have a selection from Hambela, Konga (Kochere), and Aricha (Yirgacheffe) about to arrive that should fit the bill nicely.

28452 Ethiopia Guji Hambela 1 Washed Organic Alaka – 102 Grainpro Bags
27092 Ethiopia Yirgacheffe 1 Washed Aricha Adorsi Grainpro Bags
28511 Ethiopia Yirgacheffe 1 Washed Organic Konga Grainpro Bags
28119 Ethiopia Yirgacheffe 1 Natural Organic Konga Grainpro Bags

A Natural not to be Missed in Madison, WI

Lastly, for those of you in the upper Midwest, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this Shantawene Natural we have headed to our Madison, WI warehouse. Due to the unique nature of the global logistics landscape this year, we’ve had to be more creative than ever in getting coffee shipped. That has meant utilizing non-traditional (for us) ports of entry to get our coffee into the United States (Charleston, Norfolk, Halifax?!?). This is a special coffee and not one we’d normally send directly to Madison. A unique combination of ripe red Raspberry and Key Lime give you a blast of fruity acidity upfront, but the jasmine and lingering floral potpourri that transforms to vanilla on the back of the pallet is not to be missed. About as good as the clean natural style gets.

28640 Ethiopia Sidama 1 Natural Organic Shantawene Grainpro Bags

You can view all spot Ethiopia offerings here. Want to talk Ethiopia coffees with a trader? Drop us a line: info@royalcoffee.com