HeroCoffee Bean Intro:
Duomei Village (Tome) is located in Uraga woreda, Guji Zone, situated right between Shakisso town (Odo Shakiso) and Hambela Wamena town. The Tome Mill faces a river that cuts through the main areas of Uraga and Hambela. This private wet mill is owned by Tadesse Edema, who established the Tabe Burka washing station in Uraga 12 years ago, and then set up the Tome Mill seven years ago to serve over 300 farmers from Duomei Village. Aside from the mill, he also owns two coffee farms—one in Shakisso and another in Anasora. Guji Zone coffee has huge potential, great cost-performance, and is highly worth following and purchasing.
It’s no surprise that Guji Zone produces excellent beans… This area, located southeast of the Yirgacheffe region, actually has tremendous potential. Not only is its size several times larger than that of Gedeo Zone, which produces Yirgacheffe, but its coffee-growing altitudes often exceed 2000 or even 2200 meters—significantly higher than the average altitude of Yirgacheffe. (In fact, there are also large areas in Guji Zone with altitudes so high that coffee simply can’t be grown there!) Ethiopia’s administrative divisions are categorized into four levels, from largest to smallest: Region, Zone, woreda, and kebele. Most coffee-growing region names follow this naming convention.
Just as Yirgacheffe became widely known after gaining fame and evolved into a distinct sub-region independent of the broader Sidamo region, Guji Zone has become a favored origin among buyers in recent years within Sidamo Province.
Guji Zone has always been a region worthy of significant attention. Its development in recent years confirms that the rise of Guji is indeed one of the key trends in Ethiopia’s recent progress. In addition to well-known larger producing areas such as Hambela and Shakisso, there have also emerged outstanding beans from individual mills or even single estates, surpassing what the traditional Yirgacheffe region could offer. Moreover, in terms of innovative processing methods, there are also honey-processed batches. Aside from the recent focus on Gesha Village, beans from Guji Zone have also become an important highlight. To understand trends in Ethiopia, Guji is an indispensable focal point. Duomei Village (Tome) is a tribal village within the Guji Zone, where local farmers primarily rely on coffee and other small-scale crops for their livelihood.
Guji Zone has long been one of the key areas sponsored under the Dutch Red Cherry Program, allowing the region to benefit from improved information exchange and production techniques. The Red Cherry Program (Operation Cherry Red) is led by the Dutch company Trabocca, with half of its funding sponsored by the Dutch government. Since 2005, Trabocca has collaborated with many small coffee cooperatives in Ethiopia, teaching and encouraging smallholder farmers to improve post-harvest processing techniques such as washed, natural, or fermented processes starting from the harvest of red cherries, thereby enhancing coffee quality management. During harvest season, Trabocca invites pre-selected smallholder farmer groups and producers to participate in the program. Small micro-lots of coffee (about 1,500 to 3,000 kg) are hand-sorted in batches to select 100% ripe red coffee cherries (hence the name Red Cherry Program). Trabocca provides financial, equipment, and technical resources to assist farmers and commits to purchasing the output at premium prices if it meets the required quality standards according to the standard operating procedure (SOP). This program is somewhat similar to a contract farming model.
Uraga, bordered by Hambela to the south, Shakisso to the southwest, and Ana Sora to the northwest, has consistently produced some of the best coffee in the Guji region, maintaining its reputation as one of Ethiopia’s most unique coffees.
As a pioneer among coffee producers in Uraga, Tadesse Edema was one of the first to establish a processing facility in Guji and paved the way for the entry and construction of the renowned Layo Teraga Cooperative under the Oromia Union. As a native of Guji, Tadesse Edema not only built a wet mill but also owns two farms—one in Shakisso and another in Ana Sora.
2019 Ethiopian National Champion (Washed Category): AFCA No. 1 URAGA TOME Guji (Uraga Tome Mill, Guji), scored 90.25, higher than 2018
Region Intro:
Ethiopia is located in a land full of wonders, and all the Arabica coffees we have or have not tasted originate here.
Documented historical evidence of coffee in Ethiopia dates back to the 4th-5th centuries AD. At that time, due to wars between ethnic groups, coffee spread with people's conquests and migrations to Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. Later, with the rise of the Ottoman Empire and the spread of Islam, through various circumstances, Europe began to have coffeehouses and the coffeehouse culture that gradually formed along with them. Subsequently, Central America began to cultivate coffee, and India and Indonesia in Asia began large-scale commercial coffee cultivation. Having gone through several hundred years in this way, we have only now arrived at today's third wave of specialty coffee.
