Some 460 km to the southwest of Addis Ababa, we find the Kaffa zone. Bonga is the Capital of the Kaffa region, and the coffee grows in deeply forested areas. This is the Birth of coffee actually, as in Bonga there is Menkira, where the oldest coffee genetics have been documented. Bonga is a name rarely encountered when visiting Ethiopia, if at all. But it deserves to be better known: it’s said to be the very birthplace of Arabica coffee. The shade provided by forest trees means the beans develop slower, becoming more dense and flavorful as a result.
Some 460 km to the southwest of Addis Ababa, we find the Kaffa zone. Here wild Arabica coffee flourishes in the volcanic soils of the forest understory, high on the slopes of the surrounding mountains.
The Kaffa region was once dominated by spreading rainforest. But when coffee prices declined, farmers turned to other crops, and to grow those crops, they began destroying the rainforest until the jungle had been reduced to a bare 3% of its original area.
