• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Espresso & Coffee Guide
  • Recipes
  • Countries
    • African Coffees
    • South American Coffees
    • Indonesian Coffees
  • Best Coffees
  • About
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Best Coffees
  • Guide
  • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Best Coffees
    • Guide
    • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
  • ×
    Home » Single Origin Coffee Beans » African Coffees » Ethiopian Coffee Beans

    Ethiopian Harrar Coffee Beans

    Ethiopia Coffees

    Heavy-bodied, spicy and fragrant, Ethiopian Harrar coffee is a wild and exotic dry processed (natural) Arabica coffee that is grown on small farms in the Oromia region (formerly Harrar) in southern Ethiopia at elevations between 1,400 meters and 2,000 meters. The province of Harrar, is east of Addis Ababa, the country's capitol.

    • Growing Altitude: 1510 - 2120 meters above sea level
    • Arabica Variety: Wild Ethiopian Varieties
    • Harvest Period: October through February
    • Milling Process: Natural, Sun-dried
    • Aroma: Berry, Earthy, Chocolate
    • Flavor: Typical moka flavor, marked blueberry and blackberry
    • Body: Heavy body
    Jump to:
    • Review
    • Processing
    • Tasting notes
    • Buying
    • Longberry vs. Shortberry vs. Mocha
    • Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
    • Buy Ethiopian Coffee Beans
    • Green Coffee Production
    • Green Coffee Exports
    • Facts

    Review

    Ethiopian Harrar coffee is generally highly rated and known for its winey and fruity, floral-toned acidity - bright in the cup, even intense - and tasting notes describe it with a rich and pungent, heady aroma that is wonderfully reminiscent of blackberries.

    A good Harrar is bold and edgy with a complexity and spice tones that may include cinnamon, cardamom, blueberry jam, apricots, compote, even smoke, and with a lingering finish.

    Processing

    A dry processed green coffee, a fine Harrar may taste a bit wild and even jammy in comparison to Ethiopian Yirgacheffes coffees which are typically wet processed and tend to exhibit citrus and floral notes. During the dry processing of the Harrars the tastes of the coffee's fruit are allowed to impart to the green coffee beans as the fruit dries on the bean. After separating the fruit from the green coffee, the fruit is typically discarded as garbage or fertilizer. New processing methods have become available recently that will process the coffee cherry into Cascara (a tea) or ground into coffee flour, a substitute in baking.

    Harrar's tasting notes include a fruity taste has been likened to dry, red wine. Some Harrars exhibit tones of very rich, dark chocolate.

    Harrar Coffee Processing

    With a growing elevation all above 1,500 meters (5,000 ft), Ethiopian coffees qualify as Strictly High Grown (SHG), which offers a slower growth that delivers more nutrients to develop a denser bean - part of the reason Ethiopian coffees are so renown.

    Ethiopian Harrar coffees are sometimes available Organic certified.

    Tasting notes

    The Harrar coffees are considered power house coffees, exhibiting a bold taste that resonates in the cup. Being sun-dried, these coffees exhibit a complex, wild fruitiness that is unmistakable, though sometimes a bit muted. This leads to some interesting flavor contributions to blends.

    A fine Harrar coffee has a very interesting dry edge to it, and sometimes a surprisingly pleasant, slightly fermented aftertaste including intense notes of jasmine.

    The flavors and aromas of Harrar also suggest notes of blueberries and apricots—and the intense aromatics make it a popular choice for espresso blends.

    Buying

    Consumers are advised to buy fresh roasted whole beans from coffee roasters rather than off-the-shelf through grocery stores or Amazon. This ensures the coffee arrives while still at peak flavor - within 2-3 weeks of roasting in valve-sealed bags, rather than dull and lifeless after sitting on trucks and shelves for weeks and months.

    Ethiopian Harrar green coffee beans are imported from brokers and wholesalers around the world by green coffee importers. These are typically 132-lb bulk bags used for large scale roasting operations.

    Brands such as Starbucks through their Reserve program have featured Harrar coffees as a single origin, expanding the public's knowledge and awareness of this delicious coffee.

    Longberry vs. Shortberry vs. Mocha

    Harrar Coffee Tree

    Ethiopian Harrar unroasted green coffees include Longberry (the largest coffee beans), Shortberry (smaller beans), and Mocha (Moka; Mocca), which consists of peaberry coffee beans. These are all different sizes and shapes, but ultimately, does size matter?

    As some of the world's finest gourmet coffees, the Ethiopian coffees are graded and rated by bean size with the general assumption that bigger beans are higher in quality. In general it is true that larger green coffee bean grades usually contain more of the precious essential oils that create flavor and aroma, yet there are also other factors besides bean size that may be just as important to the beans' quality.

    Cuppers (Professional coffee tasters) will continue to debate whether bean size necessarily means a better quality of roasted, ground, brewed coffee.

    Shortberry Coffee Beans

    Harrar Shortberry is a grade of Ethiopian Harrar coffee grown in the eastern region of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Harrar Shortberry has a smaller coffee beans than Ethiopian Harrar Longberry coffee, though there is a debate about whether this smaller green coffee bean size has any effect on the quality of the brewed coffee.

    Ethiopian Harrar Shortberry coffees are known for their heavy body with spicy and fragrant flavors. A wild and exotic dry processed coffee, Harrar coffee is known for its winey and fruity, floral-toned acidity, very bright in the cup with a rich and pungent, heady aroma that displays notes of blackberries.

    A fine Harrar Shortberry coffee has a very interesting dry edge to it, and sometimes a surprisingly pleasant, slightly fermented aftertaste including intense notes of jasmine.

    Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

    In Ethiopia coffee consumption is considered an important daily ritual that takes place during the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. Also see Ethiopian Coffee.

    Buy Ethiopian Coffee Beans

    Buy ethiopian coffee from Canada
    Buy ethiopian coffee from the U.S.
    • ✔️ Fresh roasted to order
    • ✔️ 100% high qualtiy Arabica coffee
    • ✔️ Custom grind (or whole bean)
    • ✔️ 1-way valve, laminate bag (for freshness)
    • ✔️ Bulk discounts

    Green Coffee Production

    Year60kg bagsCoffee grown
    20166,600,000 bags871,200,000 pounds
    20156,713,975 bags886,244,753 pounds
    20146,625,262 bags874,534,558 pounds
    20136,527,444 bags861,622,595 pounds
    20126,233,007 bags822,756,871 pounds

    Green Coffee Exports

    Year60kg bagsCoffee exported
    201600 pounds
    20153,091,980408,141,360 pounds
    20142,872,260379,138,320 pounds
    20133,044,440401,866,080 pounds
    20123,166,010417,913,320 pounds

    Data may not be available for the most recent year.
    Source: ICO


    Facts

    Ethiopia is the #5 largest coffee growing country in the world, in 2015 they...
    produced 886,244,753 lbs
    exported 408,141,360 lbs
    That's only 46% exported!

    Sounds like a lot? It's actually 4.4% of the coffee grown worldwide.

    Ethiopia coffee is grown on mountainside "fincas" (farms) at 1500 to 2200 meters above sea level
    (that's 4,922 to 7,218 ft)


    Source: ICO

    Why do you want to sponsor this page?
    Loading

    Sharing is caring!

    • Facebook
    • X
    • Email

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Mithaq Fattahzade

      July 05, 2017 at 10:49 pm

      From iranian baristas & Consumers God bless Harrar cherry harvesters

      Reply
    2. Nolan

      June 19, 2017 at 12:27 pm

      Is there coffee from the 2017 crop available yet? I haven't been able to find any new Harrar on the market.

      Reply
    3. Sureia

      January 15, 2013 at 6:53 pm

      Please check your facts. "coffee that is grown on small farms in the Oromia region (formerly Harrar) in southern Ethiopia" The Harar region has not changed to Oromia, it is still Harar!

      Thank you!

      Reply
    4. evan

      February 06, 2012 at 9:39 am

      Hi there,

      Great info, very handy to have.

      Ive just purchased a home roaster, Ive been experimenting with a couple of different blends. Is it possible you would be able to give me some handy blending hints? Perhaps to experiment with typical blends that roasters are familiar with.

      Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

      Sincerely Evan

      Reply
      • Kevin

        August 04, 2017 at 5:39 pm

        I prefer to roast the different coffees separately then blend. Different coffees roast differently, in my experience if you blend then roast results will be varied. Blending after roast also makes it easier to vary percentages of the different beans.
        A "Neutral" base of 40-50% Brazil, then 30% Sumatra and remainder in an Ethiopia Natural is a general recipe I like. Key for me is to keep it simple. If I try more than 3 or maybe 4 beans in a blend it just becomes coffee.
        Have fun
        Kevin

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Single Origin Coffee Beans

    • African Coffees
      • Angola Coffee Beans
      • Benin Coffee Beans
      • Burundi Coffee Beans
      • Cameroon Coffee
      • Central African Republic Coffee
      • Congo Coffee Beans
      • Ethiopian Coffee Beans
        • Ethiopian Djimmah Coffee Beans
        • Ethiopian Harrar Coffee Beans
          • Ethiopian Harrar Longberry Coffee Beans
          • Ethiopian Harrar Mocha Coffee Beans
        • Ethiopian Limu Coffee Beans
        • Ethiopian Sidamo Coffee Beans
        • Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans
        • Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
      • Equatorial Guinea Coffee Beans
      • Gabon Coffee
      • Ghana Coffee
      • Ivory Coast Coffee - Cote D'Ivoire Coffee
      • Kenya Coffee Beans
      • Liberian Coffee - Coffees of Liberia
      • Madagascar Coffee Beans
      • Malawai Coffee Beans
      • Nigerian Coffee Beans
      • Rwanda Coffee Beans
      • Sierra Leone Coffee Beans
      • Tanzania Coffee Beans
      • Togo Coffee Beans
      • Uganda Coffee Beans
      • Zaire Coffee Beans
      • Yemen Coffee Beans
      • Zambia Coffee Beans
      • Zimbabwe Coffee Beans
    • Indonesian Coffees
    • South American Coffees

    Search

    specialty coffee association logo

    Guide to the Top Coffees

    • Kenya Coffee Beans
    • Sulawesi Coffee Beans
    • Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans
    • Sumatra Coffee Beans
    • Harrar Coffee Beans
    • Costa Rican Coffee Beans
    • Brazilian Coffee Beans
    • Mocha Java Coffee Beans
    • Tanzania Coffee Beans
    • Guatemala Coffee Beans
    • Ethiopian Coffee Beans
    • Colombian Coffee Beans
    • Honduran Coffee Beans
    • Hawaiian Kona Coffee Beans
    • Geisha Coffee Beans
    • Espresso Beans
    • Best Coffee Beans

    Footer

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    ABOUT ESPRESSOCOFFEEGUIDE.COM

    Find out more About us and what we're doing.

    Information is pulled from a number of locations including official sources ICO, SCA, as well as proprietary third party databases. Beginning circa 2006, we've compiled data and written about coffee and continue to revise and add as new sources come to light. If you have any recommendations or suggested revisions please contact us!

    Information on single origins is updated over time and only reflects the data we have at the time of writing on current crops. All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. EspressoCoffeeGuide.com reserves the right to all its own content.

    COLLABORATE WITH US

    We're always looking to team up with individuals and companies doing awesome things in the coffee industry. If you'd like to contribute please reach out to us with a proposal!

    Contact us

    Privacy Policy

    Disclosure: We may earn commission at no cost to you from some links on this website. However, the content, opinions and analysis are 100% objective and editorial objectivity is our priority.

    Copyright © 2023 EspressoCoffeeGuide