Yirgacheffe Idido is one of Ethiopia's well-known specialty coffee-producing areas, located in the Gedeo Zone of the South Ethiopia Regional State. The area's high elevation, fertile soils, favorable climate, and abundant rainfall create ideal conditions for producing high-quality Arabica coffee. Coffee from Idido is celebrated for its bright acidity, floral fragrance, and complex cup profile. The region is primarily cultivated by smallholder farmers who use traditional farming methods, preserving the unique characteristics that have made Yirgacheffe Idido one of Ethiopia's most respected coffee origins.
Unlike other countries, in Ethiopia coffees are graded solely based on cup quality and number of defects, not size. Due to the peculiarities of this grading system, many G3 Naturals are quite sweet and cup very favorablity, allowing them to offered at an approachable price point.
Country of Origin: Ethiopia
Region: Idido Yirgacheffe
Producer Type: Small Holder Farmers
Processing: Natural/Dry Processed
Processing Description: Sun dried on raised beds
Growing Altitude: 1900-2350 MASL
Plant Species: Arabica
Varietals: Ethiopia Heirloom Varietals
History of Coffee in Ethiopia
Coffee is ancient in Ethiopia, but coffee farming is not. By the end of the 9th Century coffee was actively being cultivated in Ethiopia as food, but probably not as a beverage. It was the Arab world that developed brewing. Even as coffee became an export for Ethiopia in the late 1800’s, Ethiopian coffee was the result of gathering rather than agricultural practices. A hundred years ago, plantations, mostly in Harar, were still the exception, while “Kaffa” coffee from the southwest was still harvested wild. In 1935, William Ukers wrote: “Wild coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. The trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, at a minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is said that in south-western Abyssinia there are immense forests of it that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts.”
Growing Coffee in Ethiopia
As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is home to more species of coffee plants than any place on earth, much of it still growing wild, and much of it still undiscovered. All Ethiopian coffee is Arabica and at least 150 varieties are commercially cultivated. Traditionally, these have simply been labelled as “heirloom varietals”; however, this is changing as the Jimma Agricultural Research Center works to identify species. Although there are a few estates in Ethiopia, 95% of coffee is grown by small land holders in a wide variety of environments, including “coffee forests” where coffee grows wild and is harvested by the local people. All specialty grade Ethiopian Coffee is grown above 4,000 feet and most above 6,000. In the highlands of Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, coffee can grow above 7,000 feet.
