Experts Rank Ethiopia's Coffee Among Best

Ethiopia’s coffee has been ranked as the best in the world by an international group of coffee connoisseurs. Not surprisingly, coffee is a top export for the country. But at home it is a source of pride.

International coffee experts travel the world to find the best tasting cup. They keep coming back to Ethiopia, where importers like Morton Wennersgaard say the climate produces quality coffee beans.

“You have different ancient varieties referred to as Ethiopian heirdom. They are grown in places with perfect soil, perfect altitude, and micro climates that are really suitable for coffee processing, such as drying and things like that,” he explains.

Finding the best beans is a matter of taste, literally. The intense process is known as cupping - tasting and comparing coffee from different roasted beans, grading and then pricing them.

But before international experts come to taste, coffee beans go through analysis in small coffee labs, where Helen Assefa describes the process.

“When the coffee comes to the lab, we assess the coffee quality first by recording the details. Then we weigh the moisture level and we screen the beans for analysis. After that we grind the coffee beans and taste the samples. At the end we check for defective beans," Assefa explains.

And that screening is a very difficult and lengthy process, says lab worker Mubarik Abaoli.

“We sort out the defects manually, by hand. And we sort out the defect according to the defect types. The types are immature, paste damage, foxy, black - all has to be sorted out according to the severity of the defects,” Mubarik Abaoli says.

Nevertheless, Ethiopia is cashing in on its coffee reputation with consumers in more than 120 countries and a yearly export revenue of more than $840 million.

But not all the best coffee leaves Ethiopia. With 40 percent of the coffee production consumed at home, it remains an important part of everyday life at work, at home and at ceremonies just to celebrate that special cup.

一个国际咖啡鉴赏机构把埃塞俄比亚咖啡定为世界上最优质的咖啡，咖啡成为埃塞俄比亚的主要出口产品也就毫不奇怪了。是什么让埃塞俄比亚的咖啡豆和制作过程如此特殊？专家又是如何鉴定的呢？

国际咖啡专家到世界各地去寻找最美味的咖啡，最终总是回到埃塞俄比亚。咖啡进口商莫顿•温纳斯加德说，这里的气候生产出优质的咖啡豆。

”这里有自古流传下来的不同品种，被称为是埃塞俄比亚遗产，这里的土壤、海拔和局部气候环境都很完美，非常适合烘焙等加工程序。”

寻找最美味的咖啡豆就是一个口感问题，这个过程叫作品味，品尝和比较不同的咖啡豆，给它们定级和定价。

不过在国际专家品尝前，咖啡豆要先经过小型咖啡实验室的分析，

海伦•阿塞法描绘说：“咖啡豆一进实验室，我们首先详细记录咖啡的情况，鉴定咖啡的品质。然后我们检查它的湿度，筛检后进行分析。随后我们磨碎咖啡豆，品尝样品。最后我们去除不好的咖啡豆。”

实验室工作人员穆巴拉克•阿博利说，这个筛选过程很困难，也很长。

他说，“我们手工挑出有毛病的咖啡豆，我们把有毛病的豆按不同毛病归类，比如不成熟、有虫害、赭色和黑色等，全都要根据问题的严重性挑拣出来。”

不管怎样，扬名海外的咖啡声誉为埃塞俄比亚带来经济收入，它受到120多个国家消费者的青睐，每年出口额超过8400万美元。

不过，埃塞俄比亚的最上等咖啡并不是全部都出口，40%的咖啡产品用于国内消费，是埃塞俄比亚人日常工作、生活的重要一部分。有时人们就是为了庆祝一杯特殊的咖啡而举行庆典。