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Showing posts from July 22, 2013

How an Ethiopian bean became the Cinderella of coffee

By Gregory Warner NPR July 22, 2013 As we reported during in April, coffee aficionados for single-origin roasts. The village of Boto in the Ethiopian highlands was selling some of the  cheapest coffee in Ethiopia, the notorious "Jimma 5."  Now it's selling a bean coveted by specialty U.S. roasters, and has  built a road with some of the proceeds. Courtesy of: Gregory Warner/NPR The professional prospectors working for specialty coffee companies will travel far and wide, Marco Polo-style, to discover that next champion bean. But to the farmers who hope to be that next great discovery, the emergence of this new coffee aristocracy is less Marco Polo, more Cinderella: How do you get your coffee bean to the ball? Consider this tale of impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers whose beans once sold for rock bottom prices: The yellowed highlands around the city of Jimma in Ethiopia are where coffee was discovered in the 8 th century. But...