Best Ethiopian Coffee Beans To Prove Region’s Deserved Fame

If you’re looking for the best Ethiopian coffee beans, you came to the right place. Ethiopian beans are my favorite and I’ve taste-tested dozens of bags to find out which ones are worth getting and which ones to leave on the shelves.

Ethiopia is famous as the birthplace of coffee. It has a well-developed industry for coffee farmers, an ideal climate, and a rich coffee culture, allowing it to produce some of the best coffee in the world. 

Coffee connoisseurs rave about the unique flavor profiles of authentic Ethiopian beans, which are known for juicy fruit, fragrant florals, and vibrant acidity. Here are six Ethiopian coffees no coffee lover should miss, plus some tips on finding the best beans and choosing the right ones for you.

The 6 Best Ethiopian Coffee Brands in 2023

image	product	details
Best Overall Best Overall	Volcanica Ethiopia Yirgacheffe	Medium-light roast Lemon, Blueberry, Blackberry notes Ground or whole bean
Best Dark Roast Best Dark Roast	Peet’s Ethiopian Fancy	Dark roast Jasmine, Candied Lemon, Zest roast Ground or whole bean
Best Medium Roast Best Medium Roast	Out Of The Grey Ethiopian Oromia Harrar –	Medium-dark roast Molasses, Dark Chocolate, Asian Pear, Daffodil notes Ground or whole bean
Best Light Roast Best Light Roast	Perc Ethiopia Buncho Station	Light roast Blueberry, Vanilla, Lemon notes Whole Bean
Best for Cold Brew Best for Cold Brew	Volcanica Ethiopia Sidamo	Light-medium roast Honey, Jasmine, Stone Fruit notes Ground or whole bean
Budget Pick Budget Pick	Fresh Roasted Coffee Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Kochere	Light-medium roast Honey, Lemon notes Whole Bean

Ethiopia is the 5th-largest coffee producer globally and exports the most famous coffees from Africa. So many roasters offer quality Ethiopian options. The best place to start shopping is your local coffee shop or roaster (1). If that doesn’t pan out or you prefer to order online, make sure you choose a roaster that roasts (and grinds) only AFTER you pay.

We’ve done some research, tried a few companies, and tasted a lot of coffee. Here are our picks for the six best Ethiopian coffee brands available online.

How We Tested These Coffees

Best Overall

Volcanica Coffee is one of our favorite coffee roasters. They balance sustainability, quality, and low price – a hard trifecta to manage in the coffee industry. Case in point: Volcanica’s Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans. This brand, in my opinion, carries the best Ethiopian coffee beans.

The bulk of these organic beans are gathered from wild coffee trees in the famous Yirgacheffe region in Ethiopia. One of the oldest coffee regions, it is known for its ancient Arabica coffee varieties (2). This coffee perfectly showcases the floral and fruity flavors of the region.

We found a cup of this Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee to be medium-bodied, sweet, and brightly acidic. Tasters noted that it brings an ever-so-slightly bitter element to the table without upsetting the cup. This is a washed coffee with clean and complex flavors. We tasted juicy berries and bright lemon citrus, with more subtle notes of guava, milk chocolate, and lavender on the finish.

True to Volcanica Coffee’s mission, your bag of beans is roasted (and ground, if desired) only after you place your order, ensuring the coffee comes to your door as fresh and as flavorful as possible.

Best Dark Roast

2. Peet’s Ethiopian Fancy

• Roast level: Dark

• Tasting notes: Jasmine, Candied Lemon, Zest
• Ground or whole bean: Either
• Processing: Washed

A high-quality dark roast Ethiopian is rare, but if anyone can do it, it’s Peet’s. The company was founded to bring European-style darker roasts to North America, and it continues to be one of the best in the business. 

The Ethiopian Fancy beans are roasted just long enough to develop incredible sweetness and caramelization without losing their Ethiopian character. Indeed, this is one of the brightest dark roasts we’ve tasted.

Peet’s sources this coffee from the Yirgacheffe growing region of the Sidamo state. The beans are wet processed in the mountain waters and dried on raised beds. 

Our tasters thought this was closer to a dark-medium roast than a true dark. It lacks any sort of toasted or smoky flavors – a good thing, in our books. We tasted sweet and tangy lemon, almost more like a lemon-flavored candy, and enjoyed a powerful floral aroma. It’s exceptionally clear and complex, making it a wonderful choice for a pour over brew.

Best Medium Roast

Out of the Grey is a custom small-batch roaster, so every roast is given ample care and attention. Founded by a husband and wife team, they believe that coffee should be an approachable and affordable luxury.

The Ethiopian Oromia coffee is grown high in the mountains of Ethiopia’s Harrar coffee region in a richly biodiverse situation. The coffee plants intermingle with papaya, mangoes, avocados, and root crops such as sweet potatoes. Acacias and oaks provide shade. This guarantees high-quality Arabica beans and precludes the need for pesticides, so this shade-grown coffee is organic and bird-friendly.

We tasted compelling flavors of molasses and dark chocolate, nicely balanced by bright Asian pear and floral daffodil. It’s a full-bodied brew with a creamy mouthfeel that would be fantastic as an espresso or French press brew.

Best Light Roast

4. Perc Ethiopia Buncho Station

• Roast level: Light

• Tasting notes: Blueberry, Vanilla, Lemon
• Ground or whole bean: Whole Bean
• Processing: Natural

A light roast is the best way to taste the flavor inherent in a coffee, rather than the notes developed by the roasting process. So if you want to truly experience what makes coffee in Ethiopia so unique, start with this delicious coffee from Perc.

A light roast leaves the bean quality nowhere to hide, so it needs to start with excellent sourcing. Perc nails it with their Ethiopia Buncho Station. This particular coffee comes from a single high-elevation estate, the Daya Bensa coffee farm, in the northeast of the Yirgacheffe region. The beans are shade grown under a canopy of natural forest and dry processed at their namesake Buncho Station.

The result is a cup of coffee that is at once both soothing and exciting. It’s incredibly sweet and juicy, with big, bold notes of blueberry and bright lemon. But that wasn’t what left our tasters wanting more; it was the perfect balancing note of vanilla that made this coffee stand out. We found ourselves naming blueberry baked goods in an effort to describe the flavor. Blueberry cake, blueberry cobbler, blueberry pancakes – take your pick.

Best for Cold Brew

If the first Volcanica Coffee on this list, the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, is the classic taste of the country, think of this Ethiopia Sidamo coffee as its fun cousin. The same genetics are clearly at play, but the personality is totally different.

This Fairtrade-certified coffee is gathered from small coffee farms throughout the Sidamo province, not specific to the area of Yirgacheffe. It features a mixture of Ethiopian Heirloom varietals, many so rare that they don’t even have names.

It’s so juicy that our blind taste testers were almost convinced that it was naturally processed; except that has the cleanliness and complexity of a washed coffee. We tasted peaches, apricots, and pineapple acidity, with honey sweetness and just a hint of jasmine on the nose. 

We enjoyed this strong coffee both as a pour over and French press brew, but it wasn’t until someone decided to make cold brew that we knew it needed to be on this list. It absolutely knocked our socks off!

Budget Pick

Fresh Roasted Coffee is one of the few brands we regularly buy (and recommend) from Amazon. True to their name, they do an excellent job delivering freshly roasted coffee. They roast in small batches, so you don’t have to worry that your beans have been sitting in an Amazon storehouse for weeks. 

This isn’t the most compelling coffee on this list, but it’s a great way to sample the flavor profile of a single-origin coffee from Ethiopia without breaking the bank. A bag of coffee runs about half the price of an expensive coffee, and they certainly deliver more than half the flavor.

These Yirgacheffe coffee beans deliver a mild tea-like brew, perfect for slow sipping on a weekend morning. It’s not the fruit juice punch in the face of some of the others. We tasted primarily a gentle honey and caramel sweetness, with a hint of lemon acidity that is noticeable but not prominent. Some tasters commented they got some floral lavender on the nose, but you have to look for it.

How We Tested These Coffees

We sampled over a dozen single-origin Ethiopian coffees to generate this list of six. We wanted to offer a diversity of roast levels and flavor profiles to satisfy all palates – without making any compromises in quality.

We only bought whole bean coffee, which we ground just before brewing. However, all the brands that made the list that offer ground coffee will grind it to order, so you can count on it arriving relatively fresh.

Each coffee was brewed using two methods (pour over and French press) and tasted by at least three team members. Everyone was given the same chart to fill out about aroma, body, mouthfeel, and tasting notes. We also considered how soon after roasting each coffee arrived and whether that freshness translated in the cup.

How To Choose The Right Ethiopian Coffee For You

There are hundreds of amazing coffees from Ethiopia available, including the six on this list. So how do you find the perfect beans for you? This buyer’s guide has a few tips and considerations to help narrow your search. But don’t be afraid to try multiple coffees and explore different profiles (3). 

Remember that coffee is seasonal; availability and flavors can (and should) change throughout the year. To learn more about the country before you buy, check out our complete guide to Ethiopian coffee. Or explore another ancient region in this Yemeni coffee guide.

Roast Levels And Flavor Profiles

Ethiopian coffee delivers at every roast level, though medium and light roasts are most common. Most showcase fruity and floral notes, a vibrant acidity, and a fragrant aroma. But the precise flavors vary depending on roast, processing, and varietal.

• Choose a light roast coffee if you enjoy bright acidity and complex fruit and floral flavors. Expect lemon or other citrus in the cup.
• Choose a medium roast for sweeter and more fruit-forward flavors, often with notes of honey or caramel.
• Choose a dark roast for tempered acidity and a fuller body. Common flavors include ripe fruit, chocolate, and molasses.

The Impact Of Processing Methods

The main processing methods in Ethiopia are washed (wet) or natural (dry), and the two can yield entirely distinct flavors – even when starting with the same beans (4).

In dry processing, the coffee cherry is kept intact, which means that the beans absorb more sugar from the fruity pulp. It yields sweeter and fruitier coffees, but it is also more prone to error and inconsistency. Always buy natural coffees from reputable roasters with impeccable coffee sources. Otherwise, you can end up with a very funky brew (and not in a good way).

Washed or wet-processed coffees are prepared in water-filled tanks with the fruity pulp removed. This method is more consistent and yields cleaner flavors. However, it has negative sustainability implications in some coffee growing regions due water requirements.

How Do You Like To Brew?

Consider your preferred brewing method when selecting a coffee. While you definitely don’t need to buy “espresso roast” beans for your espresso machine, certain characteristics shine under certain brewing conditions. That said, personal taste plays an important role.

Many coffee drinkers prefer light or medium roasts when brewing with a pour over dripper. It promotes complete extraction and showcases the more subtle and complex flavors, according to professional barista Sam Koh (5).

Medium or dark roasts work best in an espresso machine or Moka pot because they are easier to extract completely during the fast brew time. It is difficult (but not impossible!) to pull a good light roast espresso shot without a fancy machine.

Brewing methods like a French press, Aeropress, or good-quality automatic drip machine are versatile and can work with any roast.

If you don’t have a grinder, don’t forget to consider grind size. Make sure the brand you choose offers a grind size suitable for your brewing method. Some only offer a standard grind for a drip machine, which won’t work for espresso or cold brew.

The Verdict

Ethiopia is blessed with the ideal conditions for growing premium coffee beans. Specialty coffee from the country showcases complex flavor profiles and bright acidity, and you can find fantastic options at any roast level.

We highly recommend Volcanica Ethiopia Yirgacheffe coffee, especially if you’ve never tried Ethiopian coffee beans before. This top coffee is the perfect demonstration of why Ethiopian brews are so famous. It is medium-bodied, boldly fruit-flavored, and heightened by a zippy citrus acidity. Simply put, this is the best Ethiopian coffee I have ever tasted.