This offering from Tero Farm is one of the most berry-forward cups we’ve had the pleasure of tasting in a while. Although the most common way of washing station management in Ethiopia is to simply buy cherry from neighboring farms and take care of the rest yourself, Tero Farm stands out with the comprehensive training program in agronomy and processing that they require of every smallholder in their group. The quality gained from this training is certainly noticeable in the cup, which offers a medium-body blueberry bomb with the sweetness of white peach and cane sugar. Although this was our first time buying from Tero we’re already excited to see what their next harvest has to offer.

Ethiopia is a coffee powerhouse. It’s the birthplace of the plant, the seventh-largest producing country in the world, and one of the world’s leading consumers of coffee as well. Because coffee is such a vital part of the economy in Ethiopia, the government has a hand in it, making for an interesting coffee context. Ethiopia is proudly a nation that has never been colonized, and the longtime government has been from a tribal minority (the Tigray). In 2018 there was a coup that installed an Oromo president – the largest tribe in Ethiopia. Its namesake region, Oromia, sprawls awkwardly south and west of the capital city Addis Ababa – and covers the majority of coffee territory in Ethiopia.

Of the over 100 million people in Ethiopia, almost 15 million rely on coffee for income. Coffee accounts for 60% of foreign income and is about 40% of total country exports. For the scope (Africa’s largest producing country) and importance of the industry, there’s a surprising amount of consolidation. Things are constantly changing in Ethiopia but for the most part, buying happens in three ways, from an Exporter who buys off the ECX, from a Coop Union which markets coffees collected from member coops or direct from a single producer or estate (as long as they have a farm over 2 hectares, they can export).