Coba

COBA: the name of a village, a station and the leaves of an endemic species. 

Coba refers to the name of the village (Koba) where the station is located, but it is also a term for the leaf of an endemic plant: the Ensät (Abyssinian banana tree). The leaves are used to bake bread and the fibres are used to make rope. They are very present in the plantations in the south, such as the Gedeo and Sidama regions. 

The washing station processes natural and fully washed coffees. There are approximately 260 drying beds.
60 people are assigned to each drying bed to maintain a constant quality.
The station's warehouse is well ventilated and the coffees are stored on pallets.

Uraga is a woreda in the Guji region of Oromia, in the south-west of the country. In this coffee-growing region, farming methods remain traditional, combining coffee growing with other food crops. The endemic varieties, which grow wild in Ethiopia, contribute significantly to the unique flavours of the refined cups from this region.

The origins of coffee in Guji go back several centuries, with wild varieties growing naturally in the region's forests. Local communities, mainly of the Oromo ethnic group, used coffee in their traditional practices long before it was commercially exploited. 

For a long time, the Guji appellation was included in the Sidama appellation. In order to better distinguish the quality of the coffee produced here, this designation was separated by the Ethiopian authorities in the 2000s. This new designation makes it possible to refine the traceability of Ethiopian coffees and, above all, to better reflect their quality in terms of taste and typicality in the cup. 

Today, the Guji appellation produces some of the finest coffees in the world. Coffee here is an ancient crop, grown on hilly plateaus in a dense forest or semi-forest environment, where the diversity of endemic species provides optimal shade for the coffee trees and contributes to the fertility of the soil.