What Does Heirloom Mean in Ethiopian Arabica Coffee?

Ethiopia is the birthplace of arabica coffee, and its native varieties number in the tens of thousands. Fewer than 10% have been identified, and only a small share hold clear variety certification. Because research and naming systems lag, most local varieties share one broad label: heirloom, a general term rather than a single cultivar.

Coffee naming elsewhere often follows hybrids or towns, like Pacamara or Caturra, all sitting under the arabica species. In Ethiopia, regions such as Yirgacheffe and Sidamo rarely name varieties individually. The heirloom label entered use during the early third wave of specialty coffee, covering the many unidentified plants and their varied cup profiles.

Ethiopia is hailed as the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and its local coffee varieties are as numerous as the stars. However, due to limitations in history, research conditions, and naming systems, the vast majority of these varieties remain unidentified and unnamed to this day. As a result, a broad and romantic term—heirloom—has become synonymous with these native coffee varieties. Heirloom is not a specific variety, but a general term for the many unidentified coffee varieties in Ethiopia. This article will introduce the meaning of heirloom, why it is named this way, local coffee naming methods, and the brewing and flavor performance of Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry as an example.

The flavors of coffee show great diversity, and quality cannot be uniform across different varieties, which also creates significant differences in flavor. Coffee varieties are named in a variety of ways: some are named after hybrid varieties, such as Pacamara; some are named after cities, such as Caturra. But in the final analysis, most of them can be placed under the larger Arabica species. The birthplace of Arabica is Ethiopia, where coffee varieties are as numerous as the stars in the sky, bright and dense, weaving a vast network of coffee varieties. Because many varieties are difficult to verify thoroughly, the many coffee varieties in Ethiopia share a common name—heirloom.

What is heirloom

Heirloom literally means "heritage treasure." Local coffee varieties in Ethiopia have existed for an extremely long time, like treasures passed down through generations of a family, so using "heirloom" to name them is indeed very appropriate. This term began to circulate in the early days of the third wave of specialty coffee. Ethiopia has as many as tens of thousands of coffee varieties, but less than 10% have been discovered so far, and very few have obtained clear variety certification and been named. With a lack of reliable research evidence, variety information is neither clear nor transparent, so heirloom varieties are only a general summary of Ethiopian coffee varieties. Whether in producing regions such as Yirgacheffe or Sidamo, there are few varieties named individually.

Why use heirloom

As mentioned above, heirloom means heritage treasure, representing plant varieties with a long history and great age. So what age standard must a heirloom variety reach to count as heirloom? This question is difficult to answer uniformly, and opinions vary. If the coffee varieties discovered during the period of the shepherd legend are regarded as heirloom, there would probably be no objection, but the legend does not record the specific location or the characteristics of the coffee trees, so the coffee beans that the flock ate cannot be found. Moreover, this is only a legend. Coffee mostly developed naturally in forest forms. Without relying on scientific awareness to discover and uncover facts, it would seem too hasty. Because of their great age, it is difficult to define a time period, and it is possible to call Ethiopian coffee varieties from the past hundred years heirloom, especially the majority of coffee varieties that have not yet been named.

There are many coffee farmers growing coffee, cooperatives purchase coffee uniformly, and the number of cooperatives nationwide is huge. Varieties are mixed together and difficult to distinguish, and the flavor performance of the west and southwest is also different. For the naming of Ethiopian coffee, local methods differ greatly. Locals are mostly farmers, traditional and backward tribes with limited education, so naming methods mostly use local languages, or name unknown coffee varieties after tree species with the same characteristics, one of which is called Kurume. Many international green coffee traders know that Ethiopia has many coffee-producing regions and that varieties cannot be made transparent, so they distinguish them based on coffee altitude, growing region, and evaluation after cupping, thus avoiding having to struggle over the coffee variety issue. But doing so may lead to inconsistent quality from batch to batch.

Understanding the story behind a variety is not easy. Many varieties have stories worth telling, which not only help in understanding the origins and development of the variety, but also deepen the impression of it. For people in the coffee industry, coffee variety is the first guarantee of coffee quality. Low-quality coffee varieties are difficult to reverse no matter how they are grown or changed through post-harvest processing, and this is very obvious in coffee. According to current records, it is difficult to completely distinguish all Ethiopian coffee varieties, but this will not cause the country's coffee to lose its original characteristics. Finally, take Front Street Coffee's Natural Red Cherry as an example to brew a delicious pot of heirloom coffee.

Front Street Coffee Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry

Region: Yirgacheffe

Altitude: 2000m

Variety: heirloom

Processing method: Natural

[Front Street Coffee Brewing Parameters] Dose: 15g Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15 Dripper: V60 Water temperature: 90°C Grind size: BG#5F

[Front Street Coffee Brewing Method]

Bloom with 30g for 30 seconds. After blooming, pour in a circular motion to 125g. After the water level drops by half, continue pouring in a circular motion to 225g. Extraction time: 2 minutes to 2 minutes 10 seconds.

[Front Street Coffee Flavor Description]

[Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Coffee] Lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange. The overall sweetness is relatively high, with caramel and cream in the sweet aftertaste, and a black tea aroma in the finish.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.