The coffee berries prove hard to spot amid the forest’s thick green shrubbery, especially those that haven’t ripened. But a coffee tree in full bloom leaves little doubt, its red berries glinting in a shaft of sunlight penetrating the canopy. I feel I’ve found what I came searching for. And there’s an added frisson to seeing these particular coffee trees — for they grow in the forests around Bonga, the very birthplace of Arabica coffee. Despite its unique coffee heritage, Bonga, a town hidden away deep in southwestern Ethiopia, is not a name encountered often. I’d certainly never heard of it,...
The coffee berries prove hard to spot amid the forest’s thick green shrubbery, especially those that haven’t ripened. But a coffee tree in full bloom leaves little doubt, its red berries glinting in a shaft of sunlight penetrating the canopy. I feel I’ve found what I came searching for. And there’s an added frisson to seeing these particular coffee trees — for they grow in the forests around Bonga, the very birthplace of Arabica coffee. Despite its unique coffee heritage, Bonga, a town hidden away deep in southwestern Ethiopia, is not a name encountered often. I’d certainly never heard of it,...
Adapted from Selamta, The In-Flight Magazine of Ethiopian Airlines Edited By Professor Nkiru Nzegwu Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, is the original home of the coffee (arabica) plant. Kaffa, the province in the south-western highlands where they first blossomed, gave its name to coffee. The formal cultivation and use of coffee as a beverage began early in the 9th century. Prior to that, coffee trees grew wild in the forests of Kaffa, and may in the region were familiar with the berries and the drink. According to Ethiopia’s ancient history, an Abyssinian goatherd, Kaldi, who lived around AD 850, discovered coffee. He...
Ever wondered how coffee was discovered? The origins of coffee are still shrouded in mystery, but there a few legends around about the discovery of coffee. The most popular is the legend of Kaldi the goatherd, reported by William H. Ukers in his book All About Coffee. The story goes something like this: Once upon a time in Ethiopia there was a shepherd named Kaldi. One day he noticed his (usually “irreproachable”) goats were behaving very strangely. They were prancing and dancing around full of energy and delight. Even his very dignified buck had abandoned his solemn stance to leap about like a kid. “What’s going on?” he wondered and, upon...
Ethiopia produces some of the most unique and fascinating coffees in the world. The rule of thumb is the higher the coffee is grown the harder the bean, the better the flavour. The slow maturation of high grown coffee gives the tree more time to pull all of that rich yumminess out of the soil and often its shade grown and organically cultivated. When coffee is grown in the shade of native trees; tropical tree shade the delicate coffee plants from the hot afternoon sun, they provide refuge for many delightful birds that happily eat the critters (bugs) that damage...
Birth Place of Coffee and Major Types of Ethiopian Coffee ThatWe are SellingThe term “coffee” is said to derive from Kaffa, the ancient name for the present-day Oromia region in Ethiopia in which Bonga lies. The Kaffa Kingdom wassupported by a rich trade in gold, ivory and coffee. More notably, perhaps, legendhas it that sometime around the 10th century in Bonga’s locality, a curious goatherder named Khaldi spotted his goats eating red berries from a shrub he’dnever seen before, after which they became particularly frisky. So Khalid gavethe berries a try himself, the coffee bean was discovered, and breakfast timeacross...
