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Yirgacheffe coffee farm

Yirgacheffe, Gedeo Zone, ET

Placeholder farm entry — Ethiopia is the birthplace of *Coffea arabica*, and Yirgacheffe is the regional name on every third-wave coffee menu. Smallholder farms at 1,800–2,200 m altitude grow heirloom varieties under shade canopies; the cherries are washed (in water) or naturally processed (sun-dried with the fruit on) and the results are floral, bergamot-bright, almost tea-like.

Coffee comes from a forest in this region; the global coffee industry is the diaspora of plants taken from these mountains by 17th-century Yemeni traders. The myth of Kaldi the goat-herd noticing his goats eating coffee cherries dates to the 9th century. Whether the myth is real or not, the place is — and the coffee that comes off these slopes is the reference against which every other Arabica is graded.