You pick up a bag of Ethiopian coffee and the label says blackberry, orange and chocolate. It is fair to be suspicious. Nothing has been added, and coffee is not flavoured with fruit. Yet when you brew it, the fruit is genuinely there. Here is why Ethiopian coffee tastes the way it does, and how to brew it so you can taste it too.
Coffee's home
Arabica coffee is from Ethiopia. It was not brought there or bred there. It grows wild in the country's forests and always has.
That has one big consequence. Most coffee-growing countries planted a small number of varieties, chosen for yield or disease resistance. Ethiopia has thousands of local varieties, many of which have never been catalogued. Farmers there grow a mix of plants that exist nowhere else.
More genetic variety means more variety in flavour. That is the root of why Ethiopian coffee can taste unlike coffee from anywhere else: berries, citrus, stone fruit and flowers that you will not find in a Brazilian or a Vietnamese bag.
What else shapes the fruit
Variety is the starting point. Two other things push the flavour further.
Altitude
Much Ethiopian coffee grows high up, where nights are cool. In cooler conditions the coffee cherry ripens slowly, and slow ripening gives the bean more time to develop sugars and acids. Those acids are what we taste as brightness and fruit.
Processing
After picking, the bean has to be taken out of the cherry. There are two main ways.
- Washed: the fruit is stripped off before the bean dries. This tends to give a clean, bright cup, often with citrus and floral notes.
- Natural: the whole cherry is dried with the bean inside, and the fruit is removed afterwards. This tends to give a heavier, sweeter cup, often with berry and jammy notes.
Both are common in Ethiopia, and both can taste fruity in different ways.
Region matters as much as country
Ethiopia is a clear example of why the region on the bag matters, not just the country. Two coffees of the same species, grown only a few hours apart, can taste nothing alike.
Ethiopia Sidamo is blackberry, orange and chocolate. It is fuller than an Ethiopian coffee is usually expected to be, so the fruit comes with some weight and sweetness behind it. That makes it a friendly first Ethiopian coffee if you are used to darker, heavier cups.
The fruit in Ethiopian coffee is not added - it comes from the plant, the altitude and the way the bean is dried.
How to taste the fruit
Fruit notes are delicate. A few habits make the difference between tasting blackberry and tasting only "coffee".
- Drink it black first. Milk and sugar cover fruit quickly. Taste a few sips plain before you add anything.
- Let it cool a little. Very hot coffee hides flavour. As it cools to drinking temperature, the fruit comes forward.
- Use a filter brewer. Pour-over and AeroPress make a clean cup that shows fruit clearly. Our guide to pour-over at home covers what you need.
- Choose a lighter roast. Light or Medium keeps the most fruit. Dark roasting replaces fruit with roasted, bitter flavours.
- Use clean water. Hard, mineral-heavy tap water flattens acidity, and acidity is where the fruit lives. Filtered or bottled water helps.
What about cold brew?
Ethiopian coffee also makes very good cold brew. Steeping slowly in cold water brings out sweetness and keeps the fruit while softening any sharpness. It is a refreshing way to drink coffee through a Karachi summer.
Is it for you?
Ethiopian coffee suits you if you drink coffee black, if you like the idea of coffee that tastes of more than coffee, or if you have found Brazil a little plain. It may not suit you if you take a lot of milk and sugar, because those will hide what makes it special.
If you are coming from chai or instant coffee, the brightness can be a surprise at first. Sidamo is a gentle way in because of its chocolate and body. If you want somewhere even softer to start, Brazil Rio Minas is nutty and milk chocolate, and then Ethiopia is a good second step.
Your first Ethiopian cup
Order a Light or Medium roast, ground medium for a pour-over or AeroPress. Brew it with filtered water, drink the first few sips black and let it cool a little before you decide. Order Ethiopia Sidamo, ground for your brewer, delivered across Pakistan with cash on delivery.