Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Our Most Popular Light roast Coffee

AVAILABLE AS BEANS OR GROUND

This is a truly unique coffee with subtle character but strong flavour. It is also one of our favourite coffees to try as a cold brew. Along with the Brazil Santos Light, it’s one of our most popular light roast coffees.

This light roast coffee can be a delightful experience for several reasons. First, the lightly roasted nature means it retains more of the original flavours of the coffee bean, offering a vibrant and complex taste profile. This allows you to savour unique notes such as fruity, floral, and citrus flavours that are often muted in dark roasts coffees.

The lighter roasting process is also said to preserve more of the beneficial compounds found in coffee beans.

Moreover, light roasts are thought to have a slightly higher caffeine content compared to darker roasts, giving you a more invigorating boost.

Opting for a light roast can be an opportunity to explore the diverse world of coffee origins. Many specialty coffee roasters highlight single-origin beans with light roasts, allowing you to appreciate the distinct characteristics of different coffee-growing regions.

In summary, this light roast coffee offers a unique and flavourful experience, and an opportunity to explore diverse coffee profiles.

History of Yirgacheffe – the region

Yirgacheffe was recognised as a distinct coffee region in the 1960’s when Ethiopia’s coffee industry began to expand. The coffee is renowned for its floral and citrus flavours and the brew resembles a tea-like mouthfeel. This is due to washed processing of the coffee that creates a delicate body.

The imported green coffee beans have a bright acidity with unique and delightful notes of lemon and jasmine. This produces an aromatic, easy-to-drink coffee which is perfect for those who enjoy black coffee all throughout the day.

Yirgacheffe is situated close to the wild coffee growing regions in the South-West – the birthplace of coffee. Wild coffee contains many variations due to the nature of the environment; however certain traits can be controlled and accentuated when grown in a plantation, including its resistance to disease. Strains of coffee varieties were taken from these wild regions and planted in the 5 main regions across Ethiopia. After being trademarked in 2004, Yirgacheffe gained global recognition and the quality of coffees exported subsequently improved. Ethiopia has a good reputation for traceability and all of our Ethiopian coffees can be sourced back to their plantations upon further information from the broker.

History of Ethiopia coffee production 

The story behind Ethiopian coffee captivates any coffee lover due to its long history and importance to the industry today. Coffee first appeared in Ethiopia in wild growing regions that still produce coffee to this day. Legend has it that Kaldi, a goat herder noticed the effects of a coffee seed that was consumed by his livestock. This seed became an energy supplement consumed by warriors until slowly evolving into the roasted bean we know of today.

Wild coffee was first traded in the 1600’s when the commercial wheels of the industry began turning. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that plantation coffee was founded, creating the flavour profiles that are now deeply embedded in coffee culture. There have been some turbulent times for Ethiopian coffee due to the country’s political history. Large scale farming was effected by changes to labour costs, so the attention swung back to wild coffee and a market for unique microlot flavours emerged in the 1980’s – one that we are still enjoying today. Ethiopian coffee is now traded through the EXC trading system, designed so that farmers receive payments sooner and guarantees sales to the international market.

As well as Yirgacheffe, the other main growing regions are:

• Harrar – one of Ethiopia’s oldest coffee regions, producing high quality yields.
• Sidamo – exquisite fruity coffee with a strong body. Often used as a base coffee in blends.
• Limu – smaller region, offering unique coffee
• Jima – smaller region, many coffees used as base coffees