t level since November 1994 when they averaged 153.33 US cents/lb.
Jimma – Ethiopia
Jimma (Oromo: Jimma, Amharic: ጅማ?), also spelled Jima, is the largest city in southwestern Ethiopia. It is a special zone of the Oromia Region and is surrounded by Jimma Zone. The town was the capital of Kaffa Province until the province was dissolved. In the early 1960s it was “the greatest market in all of southwestern Ethiopia. On a good day in the dry season it attracts up to thirty thousand people.”
What is now Jimma’s northern suburb of Jiren was the capital of a large Oromo kingdom until the late 19th century. Originally named Hirmata, the city owed its importance in the 19th century to being located on the caravan route between Shewa and the Kingdom of Kaffa, as well as being only six miles from the palace of the king of Jimma. In the early 19th century the market attracted thousands of people from neighboring regions.
Today it is Western Ethiopia’s largest city, and a major university town, Jimma is a raucous place with wide (and, thanks to a major refurbishment program currently taking place, very dusty) streets, lots of honking horns and a massive coffee pot rising from its main roundabout.
It is in the surrounding areas that the famous Djimmah coffee comes from. Like a thousand-year-old olive tree, they thrive and produce unbelievably complex coffee beans that have as much character as one can taste in a hot beverage! Processed by the old-fashioned ‘dry method’ of preparation, these beans have undergone a remarkable transformation from being the dry, ragged seeds of a cherry into the distinguished, well-manufactured beans that they are. Djimmah coffee illustrates the discussion regarding straights versus blends – this coffee happens to be very showy either way, but chances are good that you will prefer it one way over the other: straight-up for its incredible complexity, or combined with another varietal to add complexity, a burst of flavor and high aromatics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
