Our highest-altitude origin. Heirloom coffee grown between 1,900 and 2,300 metres in the Guji Zone of southern Oromia — floral, syrupy, and reliably the best-cupping coffee on our table every harvest.
Hambela woreda sits inside the Guji Zone of southern Oromia, a region that has rapidly become Ethiopia's most awarded origin over the past decade. Volcanic loam soils, cool nights, and altitudes pushing 2,300 metres slow cherry maturation — concentrating sugars and developing the floral, syrupy, bergamot-led cups Hambela has become known for.
EIDHAK partners directly with a network of smallholder cooperatives across Hambela, receiving cherry at our drying station within hours of picking. From there, every lot is traced to its cooperative, processed individually, and Q-cupped before release.
Guji Hambela is offered in all four Ethiopian export grades. Each grade is screen-sorted, density-sorted, and Q-cupped in our Addis Ababa dry mill before container loading.
| Grade | Designation | Defects (/300g) | Cup score | Screen | Moisture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Specialty | 0–3 | 87–90 | 15+ | 10–12% |
| G2 | Premium | 4–12 | 84–87 | 14+ | 10–12% |
| G3 | Commercial | 13–25 | 81–84 | 13+ | 10–12.5% |
| G4 | Standard | 26–45 | 76–80 | 12+ | 10–13% |
Ranges are indicative and vary by harvest week and drying station. Pre-shipment samples are provided on every offer for cupping verification.
Hambela's terroir responds beautifully to both classical dry-processing and our anaerobic fermentation program. Both methods are available across all four grades.
Whole red cherries sun-dried on raised African beds, 18–22 days, turned every 90 minutes during peak sun. The Hambela natural is syrupy and richly fruited — peach, jam, jasmine, a dense honey body.
Whole cherries sealed in stainless-steel tanks, oxygen excluded, temperature held 18–22 °C for 72–120 hours. The result amplifies Hambela's signature: deeper bergamot, lifted tropical fruit, exotic clarity — and reliably higher cup scores.
Hambela's defining notes — when you cup a clean G1, this is what you taste. Notes intensify with anaerobic and soften slightly toward G4, but the family is the same.
Photographs from the most recent EIDHAK harvest, in and around our Hambela drying station.
