About Ethiopia

ABOUT ETHIOPIA

The story of Ethiopian coffee starts with the legend of Kaldi, a goat herdsman that lived around 850 AD. While herding his goats, Kaldi discovered that they were always drawn to certain bushes and after easting cherries from the trees they had a lot of energy and were jumping around. Kaldi decided to try out the cherries and was fascinated by the results as he felt more energetic and stimulated after chewing them. Kaldi then brought them back home and gave them to his local monks. The monks threw the beans to the fire proclaiming that their effects were the work of the devil, but as the beans were burning the room was filled with that pleasant aroma of roasting coffee. But it would be many years after this incidence that any evidence of coffee being brewed appeared anywhere in historical accounts. It is believed that Ethiopians first exported coffee around the 17th century despite it being locally consumed for longer than this. And although Yemen started exporting coffee earlier than this, many historians believe that this coffee came from trees whose seedlings were sourced from Ethiopia. Throughout the years that followed, coffee growth continued to expand throughout the country, but the industry faces its fair share troubles. Like in the 1970s when it was under a dictatorial rule the government would force farmers to sell their produce directly to them. But, things changed for the better in the 1990s when the system fell. In 2003, the Ethiopian coffee industry would face some trying times as coffee prices fell to an all-time low, but the industry still managed to pull out. Today, the industry is still doing well and producing some high-quality coffee with high demand on the global market.