Ethiopian Oromo Guji
Ethiopian Oromo Guji
Country: Ethiopia
Region: Oromia
Altitude: 5080 – 7210 feet
Varietal: Heirloom Ethiopian Arabica
Process: Natural
Region: Oromia
Altitude: 5080 – 7210 feet
Varietal: Heirloom Ethiopian Arabica
Process: Natural
About our Ethiopian Oromo Guji:
Our Oromo Guji coffee is grown and processed by 650 smallholders in the Gerbicho Rogicha area. In this area of central Oromia the people are known as the Guji, giving the coffee its name, and coffee farming has been a core part of the culture in these highland regions for hundreds of years. It is suggested that it was the Guji people who first began using coffee as source of food and nourishment in the beginning of the 5th century. Gerbicho Rogicha farmland covers some 750 hectares, and the coffee is grown at an average altitude of 5900 feet. The smallholders belong to the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, established in 1999 to facilitate the direct export of coffee produced by small farmers. The Union also ensures that Fairtrade premiums are directed towards community development; since 1999 they have overseen the construction of 11 primary schools, 3 secondary schools, a library and kindergarten, as well as further medical, office and agroindustrial infrastructure.
Our Oromo Guji coffee is grown and processed by 650 smallholders in the Gerbicho Rogicha area. In this area of central Oromia the people are known as the Guji, giving the coffee its name, and coffee farming has been a core part of the culture in these highland regions for hundreds of years. It is suggested that it was the Guji people who first began using coffee as source of food and nourishment in the beginning of the 5th century. Gerbicho Rogicha farmland covers some 750 hectares, and the coffee is grown at an average altitude of 5900 feet. The smallholders belong to the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, established in 1999 to facilitate the direct export of coffee produced by small farmers. The Union also ensures that Fairtrade premiums are directed towards community development; since 1999 they have overseen the construction of 11 primary schools, 3 secondary schools, a library and kindergarten, as well as further medical, office and agroindustrial infrastructure.
Oromo Guji is natural processed; after sorting, harvested cherries are sun-dried on raised screens ensuring good air circulation during drying. The sustained contact between the bean and the sweet, drying fruit pulp gives this coffee its complex, fruit driven flavors. Coffea arabica has grown wild in the forests of the Kaffa region of Ethiopia since before even humans populated the area. Slave trade routes which passed through eastern Africa from Arabia would later help to spread the cultivation of this energy-giving fruit. Modern day cultivars found in Ethiopia are highly regionalized and local strains of coffees remain highly distinct from one another, with wild indigenous plants still found in the forests of the West.
