04/24/2026
Mother Coffee: The History and Heritage of Ethiopia’s Wild Coffee Forests is the second episode in our History of Coffee series.
Shortly after recording, Solomon Tekle took Jonathan to meet Mother Coffee herself — the oldest known wild coffee tree, believed to be over 100 years old, still growing deep in the Manikira forest. It’s cared for by Tariku Woldegiorgis and the community of Bunn, who act as custodians of the forest: harvesting only what’s needed, and leaving the rest to grow freely under the canopy.
Walking through this forest is something else. Coffee trees stretch far beyond head height, trunks thick with age, branches hanging low with history. Some cherries are picked fresh. Others are taken only once they’ve dried naturally on the branch.
This forest sits within the Kaffa biosphere — a vast, living reservoir of wild coffee genetics. As James Hoffmann and Aaron Davies explain, Ethiopia holds an irreplaceable library of coffee varieties, many still unknown, that could help coffee survive climate change.
But getting there isn’t easy. The journey involves rivers, narrow bridges, and terrain that resists shortcuts. Which raises a bigger question:
If these forests are so vital… what are we actually doing to protect the people who protect them?
Listen now, link in bio.
