Ethiopian Sidamo

Tasting Notes: Floral · Citrus · Berry

From the lush highlands of Sidamo — in southern Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee — comes a washed coffee with a fragrant, vibrant character. Bright lemon-citrus acidity, delicate jasmine florals, and sweet berry notes lead into a clean, tea-like finish.

Sidamo's high-altitude terroir and heirloom varieties produce some of the most aromatic and complex coffees on earth — cups that taste like a garden in bloom.

Origin

• Region: Sidamo — Southern Ethiopia
• Altitude: 1,800–2,200 m
• Process: Washed
• Varietal: Heirloom
• Roast: Light–Medium

In The Cup

• Body: Light, tea-like
• Acidity: Bright, lemon-citrus
• Sweetness: Sweet berry
• Finish: Clean, floral, tea-like

About The Origin

Sidamo is the historic trade name for coffee from what has been Ethiopia's Sidama Regional State since 2020, in the southern highlands east of the Rift Valley, between Yirgacheffe and Guji. Coffee grows there from about 1,400 to 2,200 m on well-drained volcanic soils, mostly as smallholder garden and semi-forest coffee under shade, and is picked from about October to January. Sidamo is one of Ethiopia's three trademarked coffee names, with Yirgacheffe and Harrar, and about 60% of its crop is washed, known for citrus, floral and stone-fruit notes on a light-to-medium body.

About The Varietal

Heirloom is the trade's umbrella term for Ethiopia's indigenous arabica: many local landraces plus selections made from them by the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) since the 1970s. Washing stations buy cherry from many small plots, so varieties are mixed and rarely separated; this diversity is widely credited for the florals and fruit typical of Ethiopian cups.

How It Was Processed

Washed: farmers deliver cherry to a washing station, where it is pulped, fermented in tanks to loosen the mucilage, washed in channels and dried on raised beds. Removing the fruit before drying gives the clean, tea-like cup, bright lemon acidity and jasmine florals TCE describes.

Brewing Notes

Shines as filter, pour-over, or AeroPress — floral, bright, and elegant. Best appreciated black.

Brewed With Purpose

Roasted in small batches at our Maxwell Road roastery by baristas writing a new chapter. Every bag helps fund barista and life-skills training through The TCE Academy — because marginality is not destiny.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11