There are so many reasons to love African coffee, especially Ethiopian coffee beans. Ethiopia’s coffee industry is steeped in history, tradition, and a rich blend of fact and historical fiction. From tales of Kaldi and his antsy goats to the reverent tone of voice with which coffee lovers say the word “Yirgacheffe" (pronounced yer-guh-cheff), Ethiopian coffee beans conjure up pure coffee romance. Go ahead, say it. It rolls off the tongue

About 50% of the coffee produced in Ethiopia is consumed there as the population has a rich coffee drinking culture, complete with ceremony and tradition.
Coffee from Ethiopia runs the gamut from full-bodied, sweet and fruity to lighter-bodied, citrusy and floral, depending on how it's processed. When you hear people rave about coffee from the well-known Yirgacheffe region, they're mainly referring to washed, or wet process, coffee. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is the coffee that's delicate, floral, and tea-like, with shimmery citrus notes and a clean, light body. (It's worth mentioning that the prized Geisha or Gesha varietal, which carries similar tasting notes to washed Yirgacheffe beans, comes from Ethiopia as well. It was discovered in the 1930s outside of Gesha, Ethiopia, and eventually brought to Panama.) Washed Yirgs have a rather high-class, coffee-snob reputation and—at a lower price point than Geishas—they're a great gateway to appreciating specialty coffee (and impressing your friends).