The classical Ethiopian profile, refined. Sidamo is the heart of Ethiopian specialty coffee — strawberry, cocoa, red-wine acidity, creamy body — grown between 1,900 and 2,200 metres in the southern highlands.
Sidama Zone — historically "Sidamo" in trade catalogues — anchors Ethiopia's southern coffee belt. Smallholder farms terrace gently rolling highlands between 1,900 and 2,200 metres, with deep fertile volcanic soils, ample rainfall, and a cool dry season ideal for slow drying.
EIDHAK sources from a network of long-standing cooperatives across the zone — most with multi-decade relationships — receiving cherry, processing on-station, and bringing every lot to our Addis Ababa dry mill for screen-grading and Q-cupping. Sidamo's cup is the one buyers think of when they think "Ethiopia."
Sidamo is offered across all four Ethiopian export grades. Each lot 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 | 83–86 | 14+ | 10–12% |
| G3 | Commercial | 13–25 | 80–83 | 13+ | 10–12.5% |
| G4 | Standard | 26–45 | 75–80 | 12+ | 10–13% |
Ranges are indicative and vary by harvest week and drying station. Pre-shipment samples on every offer.
Sidamo's classical berry-and-cocoa profile responds beautifully to both dry processing and our anaerobic fermentation program. Both available across all four grades.
Whole red cherries sun-dried on raised African beds for 20–25 days, turned every 90 minutes during peak sun. The Sidamo natural is the benchmark Ethiopian cup — strawberry, cocoa nib, red-wine acidity, with a dense creamy body.
Whole cherries sealed in stainless-steel tanks, oxygen excluded, temperature held 18–22 °C for 60–96 hours. Sidamo anaerobic amplifies the fruit — deeper strawberry, fermented red berry, almost-port intensity, with surprising clarity for such a loaded cup.
The Sidamo cup defines what most roasters think of when they think "Ethiopia". Notes intensify with anaerobic; the family is consistent across grades.
Photographs from the most recent EIDHAK harvest in Sidama Zone.
