Β Β The coffee berries prove hard to spot amid the forestβs thick green shrubbery, especially those that havenβt 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 Iβve found what I came searching for. And thereβs an added frisson to seeingΒ theseΒ particular coffee trees β 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. Iβd certainly never heard of it,...
Β Β The coffee berries prove hard to spot amid the forestβs thick green shrubbery, especially those that havenβt 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 Iβve found what I came searching for. And thereβs an added frisson to seeingΒ theseΒ particular coffee trees β 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. Iβd 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 Ethiopiaβs ancient history, an Abyssinian goatherd, Kaldi, who lived around AD 850, discovered coffee. He...
Ever wondered how coffee was discovered? Β TheΒ origins of coffeeΒ are still shrouded in mystery, but there a fewΒ legendsΒ around about theΒ discovery of coffee. The most popular is the legend ofΒ Kaldi the goatherd, reported by William H. Ukers in his bookΒ All About Coffee. The story goes something like this: Once upon a time inΒ EthiopiaΒ there was aΒ shepherdΒ namedΒ Kaldi. One day he noticed his (usually βirreproachableβ) 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. βWhatβs going on?β 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...
