Ethiopia Jimma Gera Farm, awarded 2025 TOH No.2 Honey Process Category!
Cupping Score: 88.75 points
This coffee is not a local competition winner — it’s the Honey Process Category All-Africa Runner-Up! While national competitions are just the starting point, true dominance comes from defeating the finest coffees from across the continent in the grand finals. This year, 83 elite coffees from 8 AFCA member countries competed, and this lot claimed 2nd place in all of Africa with an impressive score of 88.75 points!
Taste of Harvest Competition (TOH) is organized annually by the African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA) and brings together the most exceptional specialty coffees from across Africa. It’s the definitive championship for the region’s top coffees.
TOH stands for East Africa Taste of Harvest Competition — a prestigious event initiated by AFCA, which was founded in 2000 to support coffee-producing countries in Africa by promoting trade and elevating coffee quality. Much like the international Cup of Excellence (COE) competitions, TOH is a highly respected green coffee contest held among 12 African coffee-producing nations.
The competition follows scoring standards set by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and Q Grader protocols, collecting around 250 coffee samples from various regions. These are progressively selected down to the highest-quality coffees for national competitions. Both local and international juries evaluate the entries, and the highest-scoring coffees are crowned national champions.
TOH’s mission is to spotlight the finest coffees from African countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo, and more, celebrating the best the continent has to offer.
Ethiopia Jimma Gera Farm Honey - TOH No.2
※ This is a rare 2025 TOH Honey Process Category Runner-Up lot! Extremely limited quantity — available while supplies last.
Coffee Flavor
The flavors of coffee are derived from the breakdown of various nutrients in the green coffee beans during roasting. Heat causes these compounds to degrade into a variety of aromatic molecular structures, resulting in a wide spectrum of flavors. High-quality coffee beans naturally possess a rich aroma that evolves at different temperatures—high, medium, and low—offering a delightful and nuanced experience worth savoring.
Ethiopia Jimma Gera Farm Honey - TOH No.2
Citrus, Peach, Blackcurrant, Chocolate, Brown Sugar, Caramel. High sweetness with clean, bright acidity, full-bodied and rich mouthfeel, lingering finish, and excellent balance.
Gera Farm is located in the Jimma region of Ethiopia, at an altitude of approximately 1,860 to 1,990 meters. It is one of the earliest coffee-producing areas in the region to adopt wet processing methods. Covering a total area of 1,000 hectares, the farm boasts fertile, well-drained soil and practices sustainable agriculture without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, committed to preserving ecological balance. This pristine land nurtures high-quality Arabica coffee, known for its clean flavor profile and delicate complexity.
Smallholder farmers in the Jimma region continue to cultivate their coffee using traditional methods. Most farms are under 5 hectares in size and commonly practice intercropping coffee with other food crops. These farms are predominantly organic by nature, with minimal use of fertilizers or pesticides. The majority of agricultural tasks are carried out by hand, and even during the processing stage, only limited mechanical assistance is used.
After being carefully handpicked by farmers, the coffee cherries are delivered to the washing station. Upon arrival, workers manually sort the cherries, removing any overripe, underripe, or damaged fruit. The cherries are then dried on raised drying beds. Each drying bed is numbered for easy management and to track processing progress, ensuring consistent and even drying throughout.
Arabica Coffee Variety – 74110
The coffee tree, botanically classified under the Rubiaceae family and the Coffea subgenus, is an evergreen tree. Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee fruit. There are three main varieties: Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica. These three varieties cannot crossbreed to produce different subspecies. The world’s specialty coffee comes from the Arabica variety, and within Arabica, there are various subspecies resulting from evolution, hybridization, and mutation.
Arabica coffee originates from Ethiopia in Africa. To this day, there are hundreds and thousands of wild coffee species within Ethiopia, many of which grow year-round in pristine forests. These indigenous wild species have undergone countless local evolutions, including hybridization, mutation, and crossbreeding, resulting in a vast gene pool of native varieties known as the Arabica gene pool. The native varieties produced within Ethiopia are referred to as Heirloom (古優原生種).
In the 20th century, Ethiopia undertook a series of official programs to identify, test, and classify its native coffee varieties. In response to the threat of Coffee Berry Disease (CBD), the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) collected 639 coffee tree selections and, after extensive research, released 13 improved varieties. Among them were 74110, 74112, and 74158. At the 2021 Cup of Excellence (COE) competition, these varieties delivered outstanding performances: 74110 secured 8 out of the top 30 spots, 74112 claimed 10, and 74158 took 6, confirming their exceptional quality and potential in the specialty coffee world.
(Coffee Processes)
The term "processing methods" refers to the process of transforming ripe red coffee cherries into dried green beans. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, influenced by the natural environment and the specific needs of the coffee-producing region. As a result, different regions adopt the processing method most suited to their conditions. This batch uses honey processing methods, described below:
【Honey / Pulped Natural / Semi-dry Process】
Also known as: Pulped Natural / Semi-dry Process
The honey process is a method that combines elements of both the natural process and the washed process. This technique was initially developed in Costa Rica. Similar to the washed process, the skin and pulp of the coffee cherries are removed, but the fermentation step is skipped. Instead, the mucilage layer (a sticky, sugary layer around the bean) is left intact and dried under sunlight.
The term "honey" does not refer to the addition of actual honey. Rather, it derives from the sticky texture of the mucilage, which resembles honey. The retention of this layer, rich in sugars and acids, is the key to the honey process. The amount of mucilage left on the beans determines the sweetness and flavor complexity. The flavor profile produced by the honey processing method lies between that of the natural (sun-dried) and washed processes, resulting in a very unique cup of coffee. The taste is cleaner than the natural process, and due to the residual mucilage, it also has a richer syrupy sweetness. The acidity is more pronounced than in washed coffees, but the body is richer and more full-bodied than that of washed coffees.
JUSTIN INTERNATIONAL FOOD ENTERPRISE CO., LTD.
Tel: +886-3-358-6611
1st Floor, No. 30, Lane 120, Daxing Road, Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City
▶This product is covered by a NT$10 million product liability insurance.
▶Food Industry Registration Number: F-165601955-00000-0
▶ Our company’s cupper is certified as a CQI International Coffee Quality Appraiser.
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