Notes from the Road: Ethiopia

Coffee is woven into the fabric of daily life in Ethiopia. Whether it’s enjoyed at a formal gathering or prepared and sipped more casually at a roadside stall, it permeates every aspect of society.

While Australia has its fair share of cafes, Ethiopia is home to thousands of roadside stalls, where coffee is often roasted and brewed right in front of you. At the heart of this culture is the traditional Habesha coffee ceremony – an intricate, welcoming ritual that begins with a spread of grasses and decorations, a small burner to roast coffee beans, and a mortar and pestle to grind them. The coffee is then brewed in a jebena (a distinctive spouted clay jug), and poured and enjoyed.
 
The taste of coffee that’s made traditionally in this way is really interesting. When we’ve drank it at washing stations, it’s brewed to be very strong, without the use of a filter, and it’s often quite rich and bitter. But the underlying flavour – when made with fresh, high-quality beans – is delicious. The texture is similar to that of Turkish coffee, though lighter, and the flavour still has a lot of acidity and character. Some of the most interesting cups I’ve had have been served with a sprig of a medicinal plant called Rue, or Tena'adam. The herb has an unusual smell – like a mix of clove, orange and fennel – and, amazingly, this combination works well with the strong coffee.  
 
Ethiopians drink a lot of coffee and, of course, it’s all locally grown. It’s estimated that 12 million 60kg bags of Ethiopian coffee are produced annually, with eight million being exported and a huge four million consumed locally. There is a new push for the availability of high-quality coffee for the internal market in Ethiopia, though this has been difficult to implement because, historically, regulations have meant that only lower quality grades can be sold locally. 

Typically, Market Lane buys coffee from only a couple of the main growing regions in Ethiopia. West Arsi is a beautiful and remote area south of Addis Ababa, the capital. Up until recently, this area was considered a part of the larger, more well-recognised Sidama region, but its proximity to the capital and the coffees’ distinctive flavours have led to the area being recognised as a unique region in itself.  
 
West Arsi is difficult to get to. I have vivid memories of my first visit to Ethiopia ten years ago, driving for six hours off the main route south from Addis Abba to get to the Bulga washing station. The driver of our Land Cruiser had a habit of driving very close to the one in front of us, causing the cabin to fill with dust for hours. The landscape along the route is vast and open; it reminds me a lot of parts of the Western District of Victoria, particularly driving out to the Grampians.  
 
The soil, topography and climate patterns of West Arsi are influenced by the Bale mountain range to the east. It’s a huge geographical feature: tablelands, high elevations and grasslands. The coffee is distinctive, too – we buy beans from a couple of washing stations in the Nensebo woreda (town), the main one being Werka. Coffee from Werka tends to be quite jammy and sweet, usually heavier in mouthfeel than the more citric and floral coffees of Sidama. 
 
One of our favourite coffees is from the Ayla washing station, located in Bensa, Sidama. When visiting Sidama, we’ll often stay at Haile Resort on Lake Hawassa, which is a tourist hotspot, particularly for those interested in spotting hippopotamuses in the lake! It’s also one of the few hotels outside of Addis Ababa that has hot water for showers, so it’s a bit of an oasis for travellers. As with many journeys in Ethiopia, the drive out to the washing station is a long one. It is, however, a spectacular journey, heading south down the Adama-Awash Expressway (the main route out to both Kenya and South Sudan), which is busy with roadside vendors, people carrying produce and firewood, kids heading to and from school, and animal herders guiding donkeys and goats along the way.

Most of the population of Ethiopia lives in a rural setting. Addis Ababa is a large metropolis with a population of six million people and growing quickly, but the remaining 120 million Ethiopians live in much smaller cities, or rurally. This means the countryside is quite densely populated, especially the areas that are attractive to live in – including the coffee-producing ones, where the climate is agreeable, there’s a lot of water, the soil is rich and fertile, and the elevation makes the weather predictable.  
 
In the Bensa area, farmers grow coffee in their gardens (rather than on farms), alongside subsistence crops like false banana, corn and wheat. When the coffee cherries are ripe, the growers pick them and sell them to a local washing station or cooperative. Like many of the washing stations we buy from in Ethiopia, Ayla is privately owned and pays a competitive price for high-quality cherry. In areas like these, the coffee growers really have their pick of where to sell their cherry, so paying a fair price is not only ethical, but essential to ensure supply.

Market Lane buys both natural and washed process lots from Ayla. The natural process creates a jammy, sweet taste in the coffee, resulting in a beautifully balanced cup that’s rich and sweet but also complex, with acidity and fruit character, too. Washed coffees from the Bensa region are known for being extremely floral and complex, and the washed lots we offer from Ayla are a beautiful example of this.  

Every year before our holiday party, the Market Lane team votes on their favourite coffee of the year, usually from a selection of 50 or so distinct lots. In 2024, the team chose an Ethiopian coffee, a natural-process lot from a washing station called Yaye in Arbegona, Sidama.  
 
I was lucky enough to visit Yaye in early 2024 and sensed immediately that it’s a really special spot. The location was selected by Testi because of the quality of the coffee cherries being grown in the area. But it’s the topography of the site that is unique. Access to the road is at the highest point of the station, at around 2200 metres above sea level. This is where coffee cherries are received, weighed, and then loaded into the mill for processing. From here, the site slopes down to the drying beds and the Galena river that borders the site. The surrounding land is forested, so the area where the coffee gets dried is quite cool compared to the hot, exposed top of the station. This cool microclimate allows the beans to dry slowly and evenly, which helps the coffee stay fresh and vibrant for many months after it arrives in Australia. The washed lot from Yaye is always particularly elegant, with flavours of black tea, jasmine and peach. 

When we taste and select coffees for Market Lane, we look for lots that are exciting and well-defined and have a distinct taste of place. With that in mind, I’m really excited about the coffees we’ve selected from the 2025 Ethiopian harvest to feature on our menu! This season, we have a floral, vibrant new coffee from the Bishan Wate washing station – we fell in love with this one on the cupping table as soon as we tasted it. We’ll also be offering beautiful coffees from some of our long-time favourite washing stations, including Ayla, Jigesa, Werka and Hadeso. It always feels like such a special full-circle moment when our team members and customers get to experience and enjoy the freshly landed coffees we’ve sourced from afar. I absolutely adore every one of this season’s Ethiopian coffees – I hope you love them, too!