Too Much Coffee

I've been thinking about Ethiopian coffee just lately, mostly because we don't have any. We've been victims of their government's meddling with the coffee exports, but fingers crossed there's good stuff coming.

Anyway, I arrived early for work early today and had a poke around in the cupboards and discovered a bag of Stumptown's Tega & Tula organic and a bag of Intelli's Kurimi from Yirgacheffe brought in by a visitor. Result.

I brewed them both, 19g, pourover. The Yirg was a treat, but a little flat at 4 weeks old. The delicate florals, herbs and tea were all present and correct. The Tega & Tula was amazing, sweet bold lemons and incredibly defined earl grey tea. More Yirgacheffey than the Yigacheffe. My Ethiopia cravings have been satisfied, the two bags came to stay with me for the weekend and we all lived happily ever after.

Ethiopia drives me crazy, like there trying to self destruct. Such great coffee and such bad people in charge making so many bad decisions.

Some on with a business brain could turn the industry into a very profitable export. grrr

I don't know the details or the politics of the problem but it does seem very self defeating. Am I right in thinking that they don't like the top 1% of the crop taking such an increased price on some sort of communist basis?

They have a rich seam of some of the world's finest coffee which could have a significant positive effect on their economy but they seem keen to bury it. One would think they would be falling over themselves to exploit a reserve which the world has only just woken up to and shows every sign of going huge on a global scale.

I know almost nothing about economics but can anybody explain the situation. Simple terms please.

I think it goes even deeper than the current crisis, the rush to intellectually protect area names seemed ridicules and ill-conceived to me at the time. Which as a by product has died a death as they move on to the next ill thought out knee jerk reaction.

Some far more knowledgeable people than I across on Coffeed posted some amazing stuff about the coffee exchange, well worth a read.

http://forum.coffeed.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2628