Ethiopia - Kolla Bolcha

Relationship

This lot comes through a partnership with Red Fox Coffee Merchants, a team we trust for Ethiopia sourcing and have leaned on across multiple seasons. For this release, Dathan and Zach helped steer samples and logistics, even keeping our position reserved while we re-cupped. We put 15+ fully washed Ethiopians from several importers and regions on the table; Kolla Bolcha landed in our top three on the first pass and became the clear pick in round two.

Country

Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica and a place where coffee is woven into daily life. From home roasting to the bunna ceremony brewed in a clay jebena, coffee is not just a crop—it’s a social ritual and a marker of hospitality, celebration, and conversation. Generations of farmers have tended coffee in mixed “garden” systems around their homes, intercropping with food and shade trees and passing seeds and knowledge within the community.

Economically, coffee is Ethiopia’s most important agricultural export and a primary source of rural livelihoods. Most production comes from smallholder families who pick ripe cherry and deliver it to local washing stations or dry it at home for natural processing. The station-centered system emphasizes careful cherry selection, clean fermentation, and slow drying—steps that drive quality and preserve the character of Ethiopia’s broad genetic base of landraces. High domestic consumption keeps a meaningful share of the harvest in-country, while exported lots like this one showcase Ethiopia’s enduring connection to coffee on the world stage.

Region – Agaro 

Agaro lies in Ethiopia’s southwestern highlands in Jimma Zone (Oromia), a forested, high-elevation coffee belt west of Addis Ababa. Beyond coffee, the area is known for mixed smallholder agriculture and evergreen montane ecosystems that intermix with coffee gardens. For coffee specifically, Agaro has long histories of semi-forest and garden production; much of the crop is tended by smallholders and moved through modernized washing-station networks that emphasize selective picking and centralized wet milling. 

Climatically, Agaro sits in the cool, high-rainfall highlands where coffee matures slowly; Kimbibit community soil is a highly fertile sandy loam with good water retention and drainage. It’s self-sufficient with proper planting practices and doesn’t require fertilizer to produce spectacular quality.