Ethiopia | Anferara | Heirloom | Natural

by Proud Mary Coffee

Region: Adola, Guji, Oromia  Elevation: 1850-2000 masl   About: In the lush highlands of southern Ethiopia, some 400 kilometres from Addis Ababa, lies Guji, a land with a story as rich as its coffee. Once grouped with Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, Guji stood apart in 2002, named after the Oromo people who have cultivated these soils for generations. Here, coffee is more than a crop; it is heritage, ritual, and livelihood.  The Oromo tell of Waqa, the sky god, who wept tears of grief onto a grave, from which the first coffee plant grew. Today, those same red soils still yield coffee that feels touched by myth. Farmers tend tiny plots by hand, often side by side with their families. Coffee trees grow intercropped with food, organically and traditionally, nourished by the land alone. Harvesting is a labour of love, cherries picked one by one, sorted with care, and laid to dry on raised beds under the sun for weeks until they reach perfection.  The result is a coffee that is uniquely Guji. I